Jackson & Reform - Key Terms 

Election of 1828

JACKSON WINS, 

• Campaigned as representative of the people

• Protector of the common man against abuses of power

Against John Quincy Adams

Reversed the conservative trend in politics and thought

Personalities were valued over real issues

Jacksonian Democracy – Characteristics

• Opposed increased federal spending and the national debt

• Heavily utilized the veto power

• HATED the National bank

Central themes: the benefit of the common man, the will of the majority, the distrust of the privileged

kitchen cabinet

• Group of Jackson’s closest advisors

• Did not belong to his actual presidential cabinet

• The appointed cabinet had less impact on policy

• *Connections to spoils system

spoils system

• Government positions were given to people who were supporters or loyalists of a certain party instead of those who were qualified or had merit

• Popularized during Andrew Jackson’s time as he rewarded his supporters with positions

• The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 was created to prevent it from happening

  • Established merit system of federal employment

  • SUCCESSFUL IN ENDING THE SPOILS SYSTEM

    • Created US Civil Service Commission

King Caucus

• Candidates for presidential office would be nominated in a closed-door meeting of a political party’s leaders in Congress

  • Only those already within the system had an opinion

• There was no place for the Common man

• Favored the aristocracy

National Republicans

• Group in opposition to Jackson and in support of John Quincy Adams (JQA)

• Basis for Whig party, supported unity

• Supported stronger federal government instead of state governments

Democratic-Republicans

• Party that opposed the Federalists, created in the early 1790s

• Led by Jefferson and Madison, did not support large federal government

• Called themselves only Democrats or Jacksonians during the Jacksonian Era

Worcester vs. Georgia (1832)

• Ruled that the laws of Georgia had no effect within Cherokee Territory

• Validated Cherokee Sovereignty

• President Jackson IGNORED this ruling

Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia (1831)

• Ruled that the Cherokees were not a foreign nation and therefore did not have the power to sue in a federal court

• Federal govt, and not the state govt of Georgia, had authority over Cherokee Nation

Trail of Tears

• The US Army forced 15,000 Cherokees to leave Georgia

• Jackson ignored the ruling in Worchester v Georgia to enforce the Indian Removal Act

• 1000s of Native Americans died

• Poor conditions

  • Disease → unsanitary conditions → dysentery

  • Inadequate food rations

  • Exposure to harsh weather → Trapped between frozen rivers in winter

  • Exhaustion from the long march → high death toll among children and elderly

Indian Resistance – Red Hawk, Seminoles

*Indian Removal Act (1830) → Forced American Indians to resettle west of the Mississippi

• Forced the resettlement of 1000s of American Indians

The Seminole Wars → Series of conflicts over florida panhandle

Maysville Road bill veto

• Proposed that the turnpike connecting Louisville, Kentucky, to Maysville, Kentucky, offered a new system of transportation that would unite two major cities on the Ohio River

• OUTCOME: Jackson rejected the bill, stating that it would make the federal government too powerful (overreach) and add to the national debt

• Ended up vetoing the bill on the basis that it was unconstitutional, even though most of Congress supported it

Pre-emption

• Pre-emption Acts of the 1930s and 1942 - allowed settlers to purchase (claim) the land they had already settled on, allowing for the expansion westward

• Made with the thought for “the common man” - Jackson

• Settlers could purchase the land even if they didn’t have all the funds for it,which  benefitted the poor 

nullification – John C. Calhoun (SC senator) 

• Belief enforced by Calhoun that states had the right to void or null federal laws that they deemed to be harmful to their government 

• Prominent in the South as they believed tariffs harmed their agricultural economy

• South Carolina Nullification Crisis - 

  • Tariff of 1832 (abominations) SC declared it to be nullified, Jackson called SC treasonous and threatened military action against SC, resolved by Henry Clay and gave Jackson the right to use militia. No bloodshed 

• Added to rising tensions over states' rights

  • LATER CONTRIBUTED TO THE CIVIL WAR

South Carolina Exposition and Protest

• A pamphlet written by John C. Calhoun (1828) was originally written anonymously but everyone found out anyway 

• as a protest against the Tariff of 1828, also known as the Tariff of Abominations. It also introduced Calhoun's Doctrine of Nullification, which gave states the right to reject federal laws they considered unconstitutional

• Sparked the nullification crisis

Force Bill

• a piece of legislation passed during the Nullification Crisis that authorized the President to use military force to collect federal tariffs

• The expanded role of the president and did not allow for nullification to occur, considered treasonous 

• Increased power of the government 

Foote resolution

• Called on Congressional Committee on Public Lands to stop land sales

• Supported by New England manufacturers who wanted a ready labor supply

• Opposed by Jacksonian Democrats who wanted westward expansion

  • States rights advocates aligned themselves with westward expansion

  • Led also to WEBSTER HAYNE DEBATES

Webster-Hayne Debate

NULLIFICATION

• Debate between:

  • Robert Hayne of South Carolina → for nullification

  • Daniel Webster of Massachusetts  → against nullification

    • No state could defy or leave the Union

• Set the stage for the civil war later

Peggy Eaton affair

Peggy Eaton → Wife of Andrew Jackson’s sec of war

• Target of mean gossip

• Jackson tried to force the cabinet wives to accept Peggy Eaton Socially

  • Most of the cabinet resigned.

• Contributed to John C Calhoun’s resignation from VP

Tariff of 1832

• Raised taxes on imported goods

• Unpopular in the South

• Factor in the nullification crisis

• Also known as the Tariff of Abominations

Democrats vs. Whigs – leaders, supporters, program, views

DEMOCRATS

Leaders: Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, James Polk, Robert Hayne

Supporters: Small farmers, debtors, pioneers, slaveholders

Programs: nullification, repudiation of the property requirement to vote, Indian Removal Act, westward expansion

Views: Liberate the common man, support the will of the majority, distrust the privileged, presidential powers over congressional powers

• Against the Bank of the United States, internal improvements, and protective tariffs

WHIGS

Leaders: Henry Clay, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, John Tyler, Daniel Webster

Supporters: Eastern bankers, merchants, industrialists, and plantation owners

Programs: protective tariffs, government infrastructure, banking and currency, education, economic development

Views: Stronger federal government, internal improvements, protective tariffs, strong congress, weak president, modernization and industry

• Against manifest destiny and nullification

Nicholas Biddle

• President of the Bank of the United States

• Bank War against Jackson: consistently tried to uphold the federal bank 

• Unsuccessful as the bank closed down

Jackson’s bank veto

(JACKSON’S BANK WAR)

• One of the many causes of the Panic of 1837 and the depression

• Declared that it was unconstitutional to have a federal bank

• Claimed it threatened individual state rights and the liberties of the people 

• Demonstrated the power of the executive branch, challenging Congressional authority

• Shift in power from the fed govt and northeast business elite to the states and common man

Election of 1832

Candidates and Parties:

• Democratic → Andrew Jackson

• National Republican → Henry Clay

• Jackson wins in a sweeping majority

Issues: the bank war, Nullification crisis, economic development, slavery beginning to emerge as a divisive force, Party politics (first use of pres. Nominating conventions) 

Anti-Masonic party

• Opponents of the Freemasons

• The First American Third Party

• Successful in State and local elections

• First political party to hold a national nominating convention and offer the elctorate a platform of party principles

Liberty Party (1840-48)

• Created by abolitionists who believed in political action to further antislavery goals

• In opposition to William Lloyd Garrison

  • Shunned political activity as futile and sinful in the battle against slavery

• Wanted to prevent slavery from extending beyond the states where it existed

• Eradicate the interstate slave trade and the slave institution

• Dramatize the antislavery issue

Roger B. Taney – pet banks 

• Taney → Sec of the Treasury

• Pet Banks Instituted by Jackson with the aid of Taney

• ESSENTIALLY: Jackson withdrew all federal funds from the Bank of the US into various state banks (pet banks)

  • Effort to undermine the second bank of the US

Specie Circular (Presidential order)

• Required all future purchases of federal lands to be made in gold and silver (specie) instead of paper banknotes.

• EFFECT: banknotes lost their value, sales plummetted

Election of 1836

• Issues: The nullification crisis created opposition towards Jackson (National Republican Party + Whig Party) 

• People believed that since Van Buren was from NY, he would support the abolition movement

• Democrat Van Buren defeated William Henry Harrison and 2 other regional candidates from the Whig Party (won the electoral college)

Panic of 1837

CAUSE: 

• Overspeculation of Western land

• Decline in cotton prices

• Unregulated banking practices by state banks

Essentially:

• Banknotes lost their value

• Land Sales Plummetted

• Chaos, unemployment, poverty

Independent Treasury Plan

System that separated the fed. Govts money supply from the national banking system.

• ESSENTIALLY:

  • The treasury dept managed govt funds as opposed to commercial banks

  • Payments to and from the govt were made or backed by gold or silver

• WHY:

  • To address the wild speculation that led to the panic of 1837

  • Replace the Second Bank of the United States

• SUPPORTERS: Democrats: Martin Van Buren, 

• OPPOSITION: Whigs, Republicans: Henry Clay and Abe Lincoln

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

• Book written by French explorer who traveled to America to study its democracy 

• Concluded that America’s democracy was successful due to equality being more developed in this country

• “Individualism”

Unitarianism – William Channing

• Unitarianism → sect of Christianity that rejects the Holy Trinity, only one Holy Creator

• Channing: Leading figure in New England Transcendentalist movement

  • Supported organized attempts to eliminate slavery, drunkenness, poverty and war

  • Sympathized with social and educational reform movements

Charles G. Finney - the burned over district

• Region in upstate NY where Finney’s extreme religious revivals took place (Second Great Awakening) \

• Named b/c of the intense religious fervor that spread over everyone in the region (Nobody left to convert) 

• Finny was a prominent preacher who contributed greatly to the revival 

William Miller

• Religious enthusiast

• MILLERISM→ religious movement that aimed to revive the belief that the advent of Christ was on the horizon,

• Inspired the formation of the Adventist Church

Horace Mann

• Prominent education reformer 

• strongly advocated for the establishment of a system of free, universal public education in America

• Served as Secretary of the Board of Education in Mass., significantly impacting the “Common School Movement) Journal was also popular

Oberlin College

• Prominent Ohio College in early 1800s, symbolized progressive social reform during antebellum era

• One of the first coeducational colleges in America, known for its stance against slavery 

• Popular hub for abolition and the Underground Railroad, 

American Colonization Society

• An organization that moved free black people and emancipated slaves from the United States back to Africa

• Believed that Black people belonged back in Africa, where they would have more freedom and respect

• Alternative to emancipation in the United States

William Lloyd Garrison – The Liberator

• Prominent abolitionist

• Published The Liberator in the newspaper, which advocated for anti-slavery and the emancipation of slaves during the pre-Civil War era

• Sparked both extreme support and opposition and intense debates over slavery

Horace Greely

• American Newspaper editor

• Renowned for his eloquent articulation of Northern antislavery sentiment

• Founded the New York Tribune, dedicated to social reforms

• Against liquor, tobacco, gambling, prostitution, and capital punishment

• Sided with the Radical Republicans, advocated for early emancipation of slaves and civil rights for freedmen

Theodore Dwight Weld

• Prominent Abolitionist, played a crucial role in the early abolitionist movement in the 1830s by speaking, writing, and recruiting

• Most known for "American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses" which directly influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin.". (Abolitionist literature) 

• "American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses" - documented thousands of testimonies from slaves

Frederick Douglass

• Key figure in the abolitionist movement

• Former enslaved black man, but literate, had a profound impact on the abolitionist movement through his writings and testimonies

  • EX: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave 1845

  • Wrote for the North Star, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Douglass’ Monthly, etc.

• Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society adn the American Anti-Slavery Society

• Firm belief in moral suasion

“cult of true womanhood”

• AKA Cult of Domesticity - a system of cultural beliefs governing gender roles of upper- and middle-class (especially women) 

• Women should have 4 main virtues: purity, piety, submissiveness, and domesticity

• Served to suppress intimacy in women’s lives

“underground railroad”

• A hidden system that helped slaves from the South escape bondage with aid from sympathetic Northerners

• Went against the Fugitive Slave Acts

• Included Former slaves(Harriet Tubman), Northern abolitionists, philanthropists, church leaders (quaker Thomas Garrett)

• Garnered Northern Sympathy for slaves in the Antebellum period

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

• Violent slave uprising led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia (1831) where the enslaved rebelled against their white masters

• This led to the death of many white owners and sparked fear among other white owners 

• This led to harsher slave codes in the South and to more debates about slavery 

South defense of slavery – arguments of

• Arguments made by Southern leaders and intellectuals during the antebellum period to justify slavery as a positive institution 

• Claimed it was economically necessary, provided paternalistic care to enslaved people, and was beneficial to African Americans since it “civilized them”

• Opposed to it being seen as morally evil, the “positive good” argument for slavery, justified through the Bible 

Seneca Falls Convention

• First women’s rights convention in the United States

• Fought for the social, civil, and religious rights of women

• Organized by Elizabeth Cady Standon, Lucretia Mott, and other Quaker women

• Seneca Falls, New York, July 19-20 1848

• DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS

  • Described women’s grievances and demands parallel to the US Declaration of Independence

  • No right to vote, forced to submit to laws to which they did not consent, denied education, inferior role in the church

  • Required to be obedient to husbands, prevented from owning property, unequal rights in divorce

Susan B. Anthony

• American Activist, well known for supporting women’s suffrage 

• Advocated for women’s right to vote, a key figure for gender equality 

• Co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, contributed greatly to the ratification of the 19th Amendment (allowed women to vote)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Leading figure in the early women’s rights movement, the abolitionist movement

• Led the first articulated demand for women’s suffrage in the United States

  • SENECA FALLS convention, NY, 

  • Collaboration with Lucretia Mott, among other Quaker women

• Introduced the Declaration of Sentiments 

• Advocate for liberalized divorce laws

• Organized the Women's National Loyal League with Susan B Anthony

Lucretia Mott

• American Quaker Activist and leading figure in the abolitionist and women’s rights movement 

• Co-organized the Seneca Fall Convention alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton which advocated for women’s equality 

• Known for her strong stance against slavery and reform/equality based on Quaker morals for everyone 

Sojourner Truth

• A formerly enslaved African American woman who became a prominent abolitionist and women's rights activist

• Known for her powerful speech "Ain't I a Woman?" in a women’s rights convention in Ohio 

• Originally born into slavery in NY

Harriet Tubman

• Key guiding figure within the Underground Railroad

• Prominent, leading Abolitionist, former slave, and advocate for women’s suffrage

• Escorted over 300 slaves to freedom

• Served the Union during the Civil War

  • Led an armed military raid in June 1863

  • Union scout, spy, and nurse

• “Moses of her people”

the temperance movement, Maine law

• Rooted in American Protestantism

• Dedicated to promoting moderation and abstinence towards alcohol 

• Temperance movement strongly backed by women, who were also becoming leading figures of the church 

• Woman’s Christian Temperance Union → Cleveland Ohio,

MAINE LAW

• First law in the US to ban the sale of alcohol except for medicinal purposes

Grimke Sisters

• Sarah Moore Grimké and Angelina Emily Grimké - Women Rights activist who also spoke out against slavery 

• Challenged traditional family rules and was against slavery despite being from a slave-owning family in South Carolina 

• Lectured to mix audiences 

Dorothea Dix

• American educator, social reformer, humanitarian

• Devoted to the welfare of the mentally ill, challenged 19th-century ideas of mental illness, showed compassion 

• Inspired widespread reforms in the US and abroad with PRISON SYSTEM and ASYLUMS

  • Rehabilitation over punishment

• Inspired legislators in the US and Canada to establish state hospitals for the mentally ill

• Fought for change, created the first generation of American mental asylums

Auburn system

• penal method where prisoners worked during the day in silence and were kept in solitary confinement at night, primarily implemented at Auburn Prison in New York

• goal of rehabilitation through hard labor and strict discipline

• often contrasted with the Pennsylvania system, which focused on complete solitary confinement

transcendentalism – ideas, individuals

• A shift AWAY from the Enlightenment emphasis on reason, order, and balance

• Supported intuition, feelings, individual acts of heroism, and the study of nature

• Inspired Utopian communities

  • On the basis of human goodness

  • Communal living, lack of social classes, complex marriage

Individuals: Small group of New England thinkers

• Ralph Waldo Emerson, 

• Henry David Thoreau, WRITERS

writers – Irving, Cooper, Melville, Poe, Emerson, Hawthorne *

• Irving: Prominent American author of the 19th century

• Cooper: First major American novelist, frontier adventure

• Melville: American novelist, short-story writer, and poet Wrote “Moby Dick,” Novels of the sea

• Poe: American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor, famous for his development of mystery and the macabre, gruesome, dark tales

• Emerson: Key writer and figure within the transcendentalist movement 

• Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter, believed in the concept of the human soul, believed souls were commonly tainted by sin

historians – Parkman & Bancroft

• Prominent American historians 

• Parkman: detailed accounts of the French/British struggle for North America 

• Bancroft: often called the "Father of American History" for his comprehensive writings on the history of the United States 

Henry David Thoreau

• American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher

• Renowned TRANSCENDENTALIST figure

• Pioneer Ecologist and conservationist

• Used observations of nature to help him search for essential truths about life and the universe

• Advocate of civil liberties

Hudson River School

• American art movement primarily focused on landscape paintings, particularly of the Hudson River Valley

• Artists celebrated the beauty of America’s natural landscape 

• National pride and romanticism

• Prominent Figures: Thomas Cole and Asher Durand depict scenes of pristine wilderness

• Considered the first distinctly American art school

lyceum movement

• Advocated for organized adult education

• Widespread popular appeal in the Northeastern and midwestern United States

• First lyceum founded in 1826, Millbury Massachusetts

• First local areas with community speakers, then became professionalized institutions with outside paid lecturers

  • Well-known speakers Included: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Daniel Webster, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Susan B, Anthony

changing population patterns (needs more research)

• Manifest Destiny: many people began moving westward - facilitated by Indian Removal Act and the removal of Indian tribes 

• Urban growth

• Dramatic population increase 

Charles Fourier – Brook Farm

• BROOK FARM: Transcendentalist utopia, experiment in communal living. GOAL: Reunite social classes, introduce the voluntary system of labor, the choice of agriculture as the principal industry

• Founded by George Ripley

  • Failed, building caught fire. Growing financial difficulties

    • Lack of production, difficulty profiting from agricultural pursuits

    • Struggle to support itself fina

• CHARLES FOURIER: French Social Theorist

  • Advocated a reconstruction of society based on communal associations of producers known as phalanges, Fourerism system

Utopian communities – Fruitlands, Oneida

• Utopian communities: societies based on the idea of a perfect world, state of harmony, no fear of the outside world, living off nature, embracing nature, based largely on transcendentalist movement

• FRUITLANDS: 

  • Failed due to food shortages and unrest of the occupants

  • Founded by Land and Alcott, no practical experience in farming or self-sufficiency

  • Settlers forbidden to eat meat, consume stimulants, use animal labr, create artificial light, enjoy hot baths, or drink anything but water. 

• ONEIDA:

  • Successful due to finances

Joseph Smith – Mormons

• Joseph Smith - founder of the Mormon religion (Branch of Christianity) 

• Teachings became popularized during the Second Great Awakening 

• According to Mormon belief, Smith translated the Book of Mormon from golden plates revealed to him by an angel (Moroni) 

• Murdered for believing in polygamy 

Samuel Morse

• American painter and inventor who developed the electric telegraph, and Morse Code

• The telegraph significance: revolutionized communication over long distances

  • Close to real-time communication, impact of society, business, and politics

    • ESPECIALLY MILITARY COMMUNICATION during the CIVIL WAR

Elias Howe

• Inventor of the sewing machine 

• significantly contributed to the development of the ready-made clothing industry and the overall industrialization of the North

• allowed for mass production of clothing at a much faster pace than hand-stitching

Isaac Singer

• Developed the first practical sewing machine

• Patent infringement war against Elias Howe

• Singer formed a sewing machine company with Edward Clark and became the largest producer of sewing machines in the world

John Deere

• Inventor of the steel plow in 1837

• greatly improved farming efficiency in the Midwestern prairies

• revolutionized the way farmers could till the land

• Key figure in American agriculture

Cyrus McCormick

• Inventor of the mechanical reaper - a horse-drawn machine that significantly improved the efficiency of harvesting wheat

• Revolutionized agriculture in the US by allowing farmers to reap crops faster without so much labor 

• Key invention in the Industrial Revolution 

Caroline & Creole Affairs

• CAROLINE AFFAIR: diplomatic crisis b/w the US and Great Britain when the British Canadian militia raided an American steamboat being used by Canadian rebels

  • Outcome: US and GB govts engaged in diplomatic efforts 2 resolve crisis

  • WEBSTER-ASHBURTON treaty: resolved border disputes between the US and British Canada

• CREOLE AFFAIR: Slave uprising on the Creole slave brig.

  • Organizers of the revolt aimed to reroute the ship to British territory, where human bondage was illegal 

Election of 1840

• William Henry Harrison takes office as a member of the Whig party

  • Died one month after taking office (He was 67) 

  • Vice President John Tyler took office after his death

• Defeated Van Buren (Democrat) due to Buren’s incompetence in fixing the economic state of the US during the Panic of 1837 

• Issues: The Economy, Internal Improvements and Infrastructure, Slavery and States’ Rights

  • Economy: Tariffs and trade, whigs wanted tariffs and National bank

  • Internal improvements: Whigs supported federal funding for roads, canals, and bridges

  • Slavery and States’ Rights: issue of slavery expansion into new territories and states