Lecture Notes on 1848, Westward Expansion, Democracy, and Economic Change

1848

• First major national women's rights convention, calling for more rights and greater expansion of democracy.

• End of the Mexican-American War.

Westward Expansion and Key Figures

• Westward expansion begins with the Louisiana Purchase.

• Key figures: Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay.

Thomas Jefferson's Presidency

• End of Period 3, beginning of Period 4.

• First peaceful transfer of power.

• Ushered in ideas of smaller government and more states' rights.

• Focus on the yeoman farmer.

• Property qualifications to vote are eliminated by 1828.

• Themes of Period 4: westward expansion, democracy, and economic change.

• First economic transformation: The Market Revolution.

Marbury vs. Madison Case

• Most important court case in US history.

• Established the judicial branch as a co-equal branch.

• Gave the Supreme Court the power of judicial review.

• Judicial review: the ability of the Supreme Court to rule actions of Congress or the President as unconstitutional.

• Example: Brown vs. Board of Education overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson.

Louisiana Purchase

• Purchased in 1803 for 15,000,000.

• Doubled the size of the country.

• Gave America access to the Mississippi River and the Port of New Orleans.

• Led to westward expansion and an increase in slavery.

Foreign Policy Issues

• Impressment: Illegal kidnapping of American sailors by the French and British.

• Jefferson's response: Embargo Act of 1807, which restricted trade with all foreign countries.

• Embargo Act led to an economic depression.

James Madison's Presidency

• Fourth president and part of the Virginia dynasty.

• Non-Intercourse Act: Trading with all countries except England and France.

• Macon's Bill Number Two: Pitted France and England against each other regarding impressment.

War of 1812

• Fought over impressment and westward expansion.

• Warhawks: John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay.

• British arming Native Americans.

• Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana in 1811.

• Ended with the Treaty of Ghent in December 24, 1814.

• Treaty of Ghent: Restored the status quo ante bellum.

Era of Good Feelings

• James Monroe's presidency (1817-1825).

• Nationalism and unity due to only one major political party (Democratic-Republicans).

• Monroe almost beat Washington's record for electoral votes in 1820.

Sectional Conflicts

• American System and Missouri Compromise.

American System

• Henry Clay's idea to unify the American economy.

• Three regions: North, South, and West.

  • New protective tariff.

  • Recharter of the Second Bank of the United States.

  • Federal funding for internal improvements (infrastructure).

• The North liked all three parts of the plan.

• The South did not benefit from the tariff or the bank.

• Internal improvements at the state level.

Monroe Doctrine

• Stated in 1823.

• Written by John Quincy Adams.

• Response to European countries recolonizing the Western Hemisphere.

• The Roosevelt Corollary gave America the right to intervene in Latin America.

Expansion of Slavery

• The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 gave America access to fertile land.

• The cotton gin increased the need for enslaved people.

• In 1819, Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state.

Missouri Compromise

• Maine was added as a free state to balance the Senate.

• The 36°30′ parallel determined the status of slavery in new territories.

Market Revolution

• Economic transformation in the United States.

• Goods produced by unskilled laborers in factories.

• Mass production and national sales.

• Changed labor systems, gender roles, and foreign policy.

Role of Women

• Republican Motherhood.

• Cult of Domesticity.

• Lower-class women worked in factories.

• Lowell System in Lowell, Massachusetts, employed young women to produce textiles.

Immigration

• Increase in immigration, especially from Ireland and Germany.

• Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s.

• Nativism: The belief that immigrants are inferior to native-born people.

• The Know-Nothing Party tried to prevent opportunities for Irish Catholic immigrants.

• Temperance movement rooted in nativist ideas.

Age of Jackson

• Election of 1824: John Quincy Adams won against Andrew Jackson in a corrupt election.

• Jackson won the election of 1828 and became president in 1829.

• Leader of the Democratic Party.

Jackson's Policies

• Native American Removal: Indian Removal Act of 1830.

• Trail of Tears: Forced removal of the Cherokee tribe.

• Destruction of the Bank of the United States.

• Panic of 1837: Caused by Jackson's bank policies.

Creation of the Two-Party System

• Democrats (supporters of Jackson) vs. Whigs (opponents of Jackson, led by Henry Clay).

American Culture

*NewAmericanstylesofartandliterature, suchastheHudsonRiverSchool.

• Second Great Awakening of the 1830s and 1840s: Religious revival focused on Christian principles.

Age of Reform

• Caused by the Second Great Awakening.

• Temperance movement.

• Abolitionism.

• Public education movement led by Horace Mann.

• Prison reform.

Abolitionism

• Cotton was the number one cash crop.

• Underground Railroad led by Harriet Tubman.

• Slave narratives by Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass.

• William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator.

• Slave rebellions: Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser.

• Increased slave codes.

Seneca Falls Convention

• Held in July 1848.

• Declaration of Sentiments.

  • Modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

  • Argued for women's rights, including suffrage, property ownership, and divorce.