Main Themes:

Expanding role of America in global affairs

Transformation of society and economy during the early years of the republic

How Americans come to terms with the growing Democratic impulses

Political Parties & Jefferson

• Fierce debates between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans

  • Main were American relationships with foreign powers and scope of federal power

  • Foreign Powers - Barbary Pirates

    • Since the 1790’s, American government was paying pirates for protection - Jefferson was opposed to this

    • Pirates started attacking US ships, Jefferson retalliates

    • As war becomes likely, Jefferson begins making reduced payments

  • Scope of Federal Power - Louisiana Purchase

    • Democratic Republicans wanted limited power, Federalists wanted more power

    • Democratic Republicans for Strict Constructionist View - Federal government only able to do what was in the constitution

    • Federalists were loose constructionists - implicit powers provided in Constitution

    • After Haitian Revolution, Jefferson wants to gain navigation rights on Mississippi River near New Orleans from the French - sends James Monroe with 2 million dollars to France

    • Napoleon didn’t have any use for the Louisiana Territory, gave it all to the US - Monroe agreed

    • Jefferson gives in on his morals

Political and Regional Interests

• Merriweather Louis and William Clark begin exploration of the Louisiana Territory in 1804, travel thousands of miles until they end up on the Coast of the Pacific

• Southern part of territory was mapped by Zebulon Pike

• Travels led to better mapping of these areas, greater knowledge, better relations with Natives

• Further expansion of federal powers

• Marbury v. Madison - Madison doesn’t give some of the spots

  • Judiciary Act - 16 new spots for federal judges in the US

  • John Adams fills all of these spots with federalist judges, one of which was Marbury

  • Supreme Court proclaimed itself the interpreter of the constitution, Judiciary Act unconstitutional, term for power was Judicial review

• McCulloch v. Maryland - Federal law trumps state Law

• War of 1812

  • France and Britain were fighting, US wants to be neutral - France was taking American ships

  • Native American problems with Westward expansion - British may have been causing this

  • British Impressment - British were capturing American soldiers to serve in the royal navy

  • US declares War on Britain- DR’s were for it, Federalists against it

  • Hartford Convention - Federalists were trying to figure out how to get out of the war, suggested the New England secede from the US

  • US wins the war, three main effects

    • Second victory against British, increases nationalism

    • The end of the Federalist party

      • Era of Good Feelings - period of time without two parties

    • Shows US’ weakness - no national bank, not able to efficiently move men and supplies

• Henry Clay’s American System

  1. Federally funded internal improvements (vetoed by Madison)

  2. Implementation of protective tariffs

  3. Re-establish the Bank of the US

• Regional tensions further stressed by Westward expansion; Missouri’s statehood

  • Missouri had a ton of slaves brought into it - assumed that it would be a slave state

  • Tallmadge Amendment - Prohibits slavery in Missouri

  • Risks Civil War, have to keep the balance of slave and free states so that neither of the sides become too strong

  • Henry Clay makes the Compromise of 1820

    • Missouri becomes Slave state, Maine becomes Free state - 36 30 line becomes division between North and South - below it is Slave states, above is free states

America on the World Stage

• Main things that America has to do it firm up boundaries, and maintain territories

• 1816 - James Monroe becomes President

• John Quincy Adams goes to Britain, establishes American-Canadian border at 49th parallel, and establishes joint British-American occupation of Oregon territory

• Quincy Adams goes to Spain, establishes Southern Boundary with Adam-Onis Treaty - also sells Florida to the US

• After South American countries get independence from Spain, Monroe Doctrine issued - establishes US’ dominance over the South American countries

  • Monroe Doctrine says that Western Hemisphere is a US sphere of influence that should be free of European influence

Market Revolution & Its Effect on Society

• Market Revolution - The linking of northern industries with Western and Southern farms which was created by advances in agriculture, industry, communication, and transportation

• New Technology - Cotton gin and spinning machine revolutionize Southern agriculture and Northern industry

• Interchangeable Parts - machines used to make parts of a good, divison of labor for small and repeatable tasks that are done by unskilled laborers

• Rivers and streams revolutionized by steam powered boats - could now travel upriver and downriver

• Canals big for transportation, i.e. Erie Canal - inspiration for many canals being built

• Canals later replaced by railroads

• Better transportation makes American industry more interconnected, especially helps Western Agricult ure

• American society changing as well, many more immigrants, such as Germans and Irish

  • Cheap labor in urban areas, some transformed Western frontier

  • Tenements - cheap, quickly built housing in Urban areas generally occuppied by Immigrants

    • Hygeine awful, but immigrants were able to expand their culture

• Middle class begins to emerge in the North - able to do leisure activities

• Role of Women - forced to adhere to new social norm known as the Cult of Domesticity

  • Women’s identity + sense of purpose revolves around their children and making home comfortable for husband

  • Husband’s role was outside house, working

  • Wasn’t like this in lower class because the women had to work to help provide

Expanding Democracy

• Expansion of democracy - only people who could vote were property owning white men, system slowly began to be criticized

  • Panic of 1819 - first American recession, caused by irresponsible banking practices and decreased demand for exports - results in working men demanding the right to vote (franchise)

• American politics has a lot more voters, results in a split of the Democratic Republican party

  • National Republicans - Expansive view of federal power, loose constructionists

    • Presidential Candidates - John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay

  • Democrats - Restrictive of federal power, strict constructionists

    • Presidential Candidate - Andrew Jackson

• Adams and Jackson were the strongest candidates, but Jackson is a more active campaigner - actually talked to the people

• Jackson wins popular vote, but nobody wins an electoral vote

• Henry Clay throws his support to Adams, Adams becomes president, Clay becomes Sec of State, Jackson and his supporters call this the Corrupt Bargain

• Election of 1828 - Both parties are more solid now

  • Democrats - Jackson

  • Nat Republicans - Adams

  • Jackson wins

Jackson and Federal Power

• New Parties - Democrats and Whigs, Jackson leads Democrats and Clay lead Whigs

  • Tariffs

    • Tariff of 1828 - raises tariffs up to 50%, Southerners hated it (Tariff of Abominations), Northerners and Westerners loved it

    • In 1832, Jackson administration reaffirms it

    • John C Calhoun, Jacksons VP, creates Doctrine of Nullification - idea that if a state found a federal law unconstitutional, they could nullify it (refuse to follow it)

    • South Carolina refuses to pay tariffs, threaten to secede if forced to do otherwise

    • Force Bill - allows president to use federal troops to enforce federal law, South Carolina nullifies this as well

    • Jackson does end up changing the tariff and making it better

  • Jackson’s veto on the 2nd Bank of America

    • State banks closing because they couldn’t make required payments to national bank

    • People lose money because of this, Jackson believes that national bank only favors the elite

    • Jackson vetoes this, calls it a monster dangerous to the common people of America

  • Jackson’s Native American Removal

    • Indian Removal Act of 1830

    • Cherokee Nation in Georgia - declared itself a nation within Georgia - Georgians don’t see it this way

    • Cherokee refuse to be resettled with Indian Removal Act

    • Worcester v Georgia - Supreme Court rules that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, Georgia has no right to impose state laws within their boundaries

    • Treaty of New Echota - group of Cherokee that doesn’t really represent their nation exchange land in Georgia for a reservation west of the Mississippi

    • All who didn’t move were forced, Trail of Tears

Development of American Culture

• Important for a distinct American identity - mainly earned through language, philosophy, art, and religion

• Noah Webster - creates a standard American dictionary, used by expanding networks of schools and academies

• American Philosophy - Transcendentalism

  • Influenced by European romanticism

  • Emphasizes the power and beauty of nature

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson - believes in moral perfection

  • Henry David Thoreau - follower of Emerson, moves to cabin near Waldon Pond, experiments on idea of moral perfection

  • Many philosophers support reform movements, lots of overlap between these movments

• Transcendentalism influences art

  • Hudson River School - Artists here paint romanticized landscapes in American territories

• All of these things were efforts at Spritual renewal for America

• Some take this a lot further, try to make Utopian communities

  • Oneida Community - Believe that the second coming of Christ already happened, live communally, participate in polygamy with birth control

Second Great Awakening

• Most significant spiritual renewal

• Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians organize camp meetings that last for days on end

• Would be around a dozen preachers, some would make speeches that would last an entire day

• Camp meetings were generally egalitarian, included all people

• Baptists split because of northern baptist abolitionists

• Movement spreads to cities as well, mainly due to Charles Finney, a New York preacher that spoke powerfully with imagery that anyone could understand

• People flocked to the camp meetings

• This revival mainly focused on morality and the reformation of society

• Sets stage for Temperance Movement

Age of Reform

• American Temperance Society - addressed toward the working class men who abused alcohol, goal was the complete abstinence of alcohol

• 2nd Great Awakening creates Mormons - believed in the idea that Christianity had strayed from its original teachings

• Once Smith (creator of Mormonism) said that God was for polygamy, Mormons were persecuted

• Mormons led by Brigham Young to Utah territory

• Abolitionism - cause was mainly supported by free black people and Quakers

• William Lloyd Garrison argues that white people need to go against slavery

• American Anti-Slavery Society - spread rapidly across the Northern states

• Not everyone in the North was for abolition - feared for the collapse of the Southern economy, and white men feared that they would be pushed out of their jobs

• Women also supported abolitionism - weren’t able to do so effectively because of their small role in society at that time

• Abolitionism and Feminism become intertwined

• Seneca Falls Convention - First women’s rights conference in America, draft Declaration of Sentiments, which calls for equality in education, legal rights, and voting

South & African Americans in Early Republic

• Plantations expanded with the West, owners became incredibly rich - makes wealthy plantation aristocracy, want to protect their way of life and wealth through harsh discipline toward enslaved people

• Enslaved people were able to keep their sense of community alive - did this through songs

• Planters would do as much as possible to prevent slave uprising, Haitian Revolution

• Nat Turner’s Rebellion - Turner organizes slave revolt, rebellion killed 50 white people

  • Increases fear within Southerners

• Most white Southerners were Yeoman Farmers - Didn’t own slaves

  • Still believed in the system of slavery and racial hierarchy

• Overfarming results in Southern farmers going west

• Slavery grows in the west

Manifest Destiny