Rise of the Second Party System
What kills the Federalist? Three Reasons:
The Republicans seem to be celebrating the common man. They are not viewed as elites or highly wealthy (though many are).
They focus on farming as a key aspect of their identity, which gets a lot of votes from farmers. By extension in terms of voting, Republicans were more effective at getting people out to vote
The Hartford Convention and the War of 1812. Since they threatened to succeed during it, it makes them look really bad. By extension, the War of 1812 sees the Republicans get a boost of national pride due to them winning another war against Britain.
After the Federalists fall apart, the US becomes a country of essentially just one political party
Era of Good Feelings
From 1816 - 1824
Republicans were leading all levels of office. Monroe would win the presidency in 1816 with all electoral votes but one, and is re-elected in 1820 with all votes but two.
The question had turned to who would dominate the party, since there was no opposition against the party. Since the party had people from many different walks of life, an emphasis was placed upon themselves to leave the party.
They felt like they don’t have power in the party, and their ideas weren’t seen. Maybe they should make their own party.
During this time, the North and the South had began to grow further apart - Sectionalism.
In the North, they are stressed out by the fact a lot of expansion in the nation involved farming, and by extension, slavery.
They also saw the War of 1812 as a war fought in the South, and they (since a lot of Northerners were Federalists) saw it as a war to help the other party.
White supremacy also began to characterize a lot of the political climate at the time as well. Things are happening to prop up the idea of the master white race.
This was being supported through things like racial science (like phrenology).
The word white began to pop up in legal language throughout all of the country’s legislature.
These were all attempts to prop the system of slavery up based on science.
State governments began to pass laws to allow non-slaving holding yeomen to vote, and they also pass laws to make it difficult for women, Indians, and free people of color to vote. This happened in both the North and the South.
The Missouri Crisis
In 1819, the founding generation had tried to demarcate where slavery was allowed to expand (remember Northwest Ordinance). However, it was unclear where slavery could expand south of the already existing laws. States began to allow slavery in the south. A question of how far slavery could expand appeared.
The north saw the expansion of slavery as competition against wage capitalism.
By 1819, there were 11 states that were considered slave states, and 11 that did not allow slavery - balance.
The North was upset. They viewed slavery as politically unfair since it gave the South an unfair advantage since their populations were larger because of slavery.
When Missouri tried to become a state, the North wanted them to abolish slavery - why?
Some of the Republicans were abolitionists.
They didn’t want yeomen to not be able to compete in the West and feel like they’re at a disadvantage because of the master class.
They want political power to be balanced.
In essence, they’re either against the system of slavery or have economic interests that clashed with the South.
For two years the Congress debates about what would happen with Missouri. A compromise would be reached thanks to Henry Clay.
He states Missouri will enter the Union as a slave state, and the Maine territory will be brought in as a non-slave holding state - 12 and 12. Balance is kept.
He also states that any territory that comes as a state in the future will follow this rule - Anything to the South of Missouri will automatically be a slave state, and anything to the north will be a free state.
The 1824 Presidential Election
The Republicans hold a caucus (meeting for a political party) to decide what the party’s main principles will be. They can’t really nominate a leader for the party to run for president so they choose four people - William Crawford, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson. Each candidate looked to define their region.
JQA was the son of John Adams, and is popular with the remnants of the Federalist party in the northeast.
Crawford was only big in Georgia.
Clay is popular in the expanding western territories and western states that can vote
Jackson pulls a lot of “desperate” people so to speak - he is very clear on his policies, didn’t go to college, a war hero - he is fancied as a man of the people.
Come election time, nobody received a majority, so the House of Representatives was left to decide who would win between JQA, Crawford, and Jackson. Jackson led the electoral college votes, but he didn’t have a majority. Crawford drops out due to a stroke, and JQA isn’t popular out of the northeast - however, something happens.
Clay sees himself as having a long political legacy - he thinks he will become president later. He sees Jackson as a political threat, so he makes a deal with Adams - he will tell his supporters to vote for Adams, and in turn Adams would make him Secretary of States. Adams agrees.
Adams would win the vote thanks to this. While it wasn’t necessarily corruption, it had an air of corruption to it. it wasn’t outlawed by the Constitution. Jackson is livid at the the results.