Chapter 10-- Democracy in America

The Triumph of Democracy 

Property & Democracy

• Political democracy was a third element of the Market Revolution & territorial expansion 

• No state that entered the Union after the original thirteen required ownership of property to vote 

• Non-Freeholders = landless men

  • insisted they were as fit as other; their pressure did much to democratic American politics 

  • VA constitutional convention of 1829

• VA, NC, and Rhode Island still retained property requirements

  • Large slaveholders → resisted demands for changes in voting qualifications 1829 → constitutional convention in 1850 eliminated property requirement 

The Dorr War

• Rhode island was the only state who still had property requirement qualification 

• Rhode Island had a growing population of Non-Freeholders 

• October 1841: democratic reform advocates organized a People's Convention → new state constitution giving suffrage to all adult white men while eliminating blacks entirely

  • Inaugurated Thomas Door as governor 

• President John Tyler dispatched federal troops → movement collapsed 

  • Dorr went to prison for treason 

• Dorr war demonstrated passion from the exclusion of any group of white men for voting → legislature eliminated the property qualifications for native-born men 

  • Retained for immigrants until 1888

Tocqueville on Democracy

• Democratic system had been consolidated due to 90% of white men having suffrage 

• Democratic political institutions came to define nationality 

• French writer Alexis de Tocqueville produced Democracy in America

  • Key insight regarded American democracy with suffrage or a particular set of political institution 

  • Encouraged individual initiative, belief in equality, and an active public sphere populated by democratic organizations (activists)

• The idea of ordinary people having the ultimate power in government was a new and revolutionary concept in Western thinking

  • Replaced old idea of divine right & hierarchical authority dominating politics 

• Democracy reinforced a sense of equality among those in politics & also deepened a divide to those who didn’t participate

  • Participation in elections & pageantry surrounding them helped define the “people” of the US

• Suffrage = emblem of American citizenship 

• Suffrage was still a PRIVILEGE rather than a right in law

• Noah Webster’s American Dictionary regarded the term “citizen” was synonymous with suffrage  

The Information Revolution

• Market revolution & political democracy → large expansion of public sphere & printing (“information revolution”)

• Steam power to newspaper printing → increase in output & rise of mass-circulation “penny press” 

  • 1 cent/issue instead of 6

  • Newspapers like New York Sun & New York Herald introduced a new style of journalism 

    • Appealed to audience by emphasizing sensationalism, crime stories, and exposes of misconduct 

• Low postal costs → expansion of newspapers in father areas & appearance of “alternative” newspapers in late 1820-early 1830s

• Emergence of organized political parties → newspaper publication 

  • Each party needed newspapers accounting their views 

  • Government printing contracts were essential to most newspapers’ survival 

• Growth of literacy public → emergence of women writers

• Through participation in religious & reform movements, thousands of women would establish a public presence

• 1807: NJ added the word “male” to voting requirements → women denied suffrage

The Limits of Democracy

• 1830s, “the people” ruling had become a universally accepted part of American politics 

• Exclusion of women & non-white men 

• 1851: United States Magazine and Democratic Review declared the principle of universal suffrage meant white males dominated the political nation

• As democracy increased, exclusion from economic status shifted to natural incapability/incapacity

• The limits of American democracy rested on the belief that the character and abilities of non-whites and women were forever fixed by nature

  • Ex: women were bound to the house, women were easily swayed,  blacks inferior to whites

• 1920: constitution said women were allowed to vote

• Voting Rights Act of 1965: blacks gained suffrage in many southern states

• Men were expected to participate in public life and politics, while women were often expected to focus on domestic roles

  • contrast between public and private spheres based on gender roles

A Radical Democracy

• White Americans of all social classes had the same privileges whilst Black Americans did not

• Misportrayal of African-Americans as stupid, dishonest, and ridiculous 

  • American authors either ignored blacks or presented them as stereotypes: happy slaves prone to superstition or long-suffering devout Christian 

• Ideology of racial superiority & inferiority and scientific underpinnings → affected boundaries of political nation  

• Franchise: right to vote

• Disenfranchisement: removing the right to vote from blacks

• In revolutionary era: VA, S.C, & GA explicitly confined suffrage to whites

• Up until 1800, Black people in northern states could vote

• After 1800, every new state except Maine confined voting to ONLY white men

• Some states that had previously allowed Black people to vote began to take away that right

  • Kentucky in 1799

  • Maryland in 1801

Race & Class

• 1821: NY Constitutional Convention raised requirements for blacks to $250

• 1835: N.C revoked free blacks suffrage 

• 1838: PA did the same as N.C, even though it was the home of an economically successful black community in Philly

  • Thaddeus Stevens refused to sign the document because of its provisions limiting suffrage to whites

• 1860s: blacks could votes on the same basis as whites in only 5 New England states

• “Political community of white people”

• Definition of the political nation became more associated with race

• Federal government bared free blacks from service in state militias & the army

• Blacks did not have full equality

  • EX: Illinois 

    • Blacks had no suffrage, could not testify or sue in court, serve in militia, or attend public schools 

• Race replaced class as a voting qualification 

• Race helped to solidify a sense of national identity among the diverse groups of European origins compared to blacks/non-whites

Nationalism & its Discontents

The American System

• New National Bank

• Tariff of 1816

  • Protection to goods that could be produced in the US while admitting tax-free to those that could not be manufactured at home

• Federal financing of improved roads and canals 

Banks & Money

• National banks were supposed to be a way to control printing/circulation of money

• 2nd Bank of the US became focus of public resentment 

• Local Banks rose to more than 200

  • Promoted economic growth by helping to finance manufacturing and commerce & extending loans to farmers for the purchase of land, tools, consumer goods, and, in the South, slaves 

  • Printed paper money

• Specie: gold or silver

• Paper money consisted of notes promising to pay the bearer on demand a specific amount off specie

  • Depended on reputation for stability

  • Banks often printer more money than the specie in their vaults → value of paper currency fluctuated widely

  • Prospect was supposed to prevent local banks from acting improperly

    • if it could not provide the specie when asked, it would have to suspend operations

• Public confidence was essential to a bank’s success

Panic of 1819

• Trade with Europe stopped during the war, so when it restarted, demand for goods was really high

• Land prices in the West went up

• Over time, demand slowed down, and we had too many goods but not enough buyers

• Land values dropped

• Banks struggled because they had loaned money for both goods production and land purchases, and now people couldn’t pay back easily

The Politics of the Panic

• Deepened many Americans’ traditional distrust of the bank 

• McCulloch v. Maryland: Marshall said the states cannot tax banks, which were created by Federal Government

The Missouri Controversy

• Era of Good Feelings: less separation between parties during Madison’s time in office

  • Plenty of bad feelings surfaced during his presidency 

  • In the absence of two-party competition, politics was organized along lines of competing sectional interests

• James Mallmadge: a Republican congressman who said no more slave states & Missouri frees children once they turn 25

• Missouri Compromise: Missouri can be a slave state, Maine is NOT a slave state, no more slave states north of 36’30 latitude, which is Missouri southern border

• Comity Clause: requires each state to recognize the rights of citizens of other states

• Missouri presented to Congress its new constitution, which not only protected slavery but prohibited free blacks from entering the state

  • Violated comity clause

• 2nd Compromise: let Missouri become a state as long as it agreed not to deny rights to free Black people from other states

The Slavery Question

• The Missouri debate revealed deep divisions over slavery in the U.S

• Thomas Jefferson was against banning slavery in Missouri

  • Saw the Missouri issue as a political move by Federalists to divide northern and southern Republicans & not a moral stand against slavery

• By 1820, many northerners felt the South had too much power in government due to its influence in Congress and past presidents from VA

• Adding more slave states would increase the South’s political power, which worried the North

• This debate over Missouri marked the first major conflict over expanding slavery 

• Slavery begins to shift west

Nation, Section, & Party 

The US & the Latin American Wars of Independence 

• 1810 and 1822: Spain's Latin American colonies revolted → creation of independent nations like Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru

• 1825: Spain's American empire was reduced to Cuba and Puerto Rico

• The U.S. extended diplomatic recognition to the new Latin American republics in 182

• The Spanish-American revolutions mirrored the U.S. Revolution

  • both driven by imperial efforts to increase colonial contributions to the empire’s finances

• Napoleon's occupation of Spain in 1808 led to local control assertions in Spanish America

  • followed by a new constitution in 1812 that was later repudiated by the restored Spanish king in 1814

• Spanish-American independence declarations echoed the U.S. Declaration of Independence

  • Venezuela's in 1811

• Unlike the British Empire, Spain’s empire fragmented into seventeen nations due to vast size and lack of communication

• Spanish-imposed printing restrictions hindered communication across the empire, but revolutionary ideas spread through imported books

• Many Latin American constitutions were more democratic than the U.S. Constitution

  • extended voting rights to Indians and free blacks 

  • promoting abolition of slavery

• The Latin American wars of independence were longer, more destructive, and often followed by civil wars

  • hindered economic development compared to the U.S. experience

The Monroe Doctrine

• U.S opposed to future European colonization

• U.S. would abstain any involvement from European wars

• Europe was not to interfere with new republics in Latin America

• James Monroe: declared the Monroe Doctrine to Congress on Dec 2, 1823 after the Latin American Wars of Independence → several nations gaining freedom from Spain

• America’s diplomatic Declaration of Independence

• Claimed US the role of dominant power in Western Hemisphere

The Election of 1824

• Sectionalism: when people are more loyal to their own region or area than to the country as a whole

• Sectionalism ruled domestic politics

• Andrew Jackson claimed national support 

  • Popularity rested on military victories over the British at the Battle of New Orleans, the Creek Indians, and Seminole Indians 

• 12th Amendment: voting by ballot for President AND VP 

• Corrupt Bargain: bartering critical votes in the presidential contest for a public office

• Henry Clay & the “Corrupt Bargain”

  • Clay gave his support to Adams because the election of Jackson would hurt his chances of becoming president in the future

  • Clay soon became secretary of state in Adam’s’ cabinet 

• Democrats vs Whigs 

  • Democrats: Jackson & Crawford

  • Whigs: Clay & Adams

The Nationalism of John Quincy Adams

• Son of John Adams

• Domestic policy 

  • Strongly supported the American System of government-sponsored economic development 

  • Hoped to encourage American commerce

• Foreign Policy 

  • Reprimanded Andrew Jackson for his violent incursion into FL

  • Concluded an agreement with Great Britain fixing the Canadian-American border at the 49th parallel, the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase

  • Vision was that US would PEACEFULLY absorb Canada, Cuba, and at least part of Mexico 

“Liberty Is Power”

• Dec 1825: set forth a program for an activist national state 

  • Federal govt should be patron for improvement in the land

  • Called for legislation promoting agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, and the mechanical & elegant arts

  • Plan included the establishment of a national university, an astronomical observatory. And a naval academy 

• Where Americans felt that govt authority posed threat to freedom, Adam said “Liberty is Power” → indicating America would become more powerful

• Adam’s proposal alarms all believers in strict construction of the Constitution 

• Adams's administration invested more in internal improvements than his five predecessors combined and raised tariffs sharply in 1828

• Despite his vision, most of Adams's initiatives found little support in Congress

• His vision for national economic and educational planning would not be fully realized until the twentieth century

Martin Van Buren & the Democratic Party 

• Represented the new political era 

• Talented party manager but not a person of great vision or intellect 

• Insisted political parties was good 

  • Competition, which provided a check on those in power and offered voters a real choice in elections 

  • By bringing together political leaders from different regions in support of common candidates and principles, national parties could counteract the sectionalism that had reared its head during the 1820s

• National political parties formed a bond of unity in a divided nation 

Election of 1828

• Jackson’s supporters made few campaign promises 

  • Relied on their candidate’s popularity and the workings of party machinery to get out the vote

  • Democratic Party Campaigns

• Democratic Party Campaigns in 1828 election was scandalous 

  • Accusations towards Adams of having a series of mistresses in Europe 

• By 1824, Voters, not legislature, chose presidential electors in every state except S.C

• Jackson’s election was the first to demonstrate how the arrival of universal white male voting, organized by national political parties, had transformed American politics → Age of Jackson

Age of Jackson

• Jackson was capable of eloquence in his public statements

  • Self-proclaimed champion of the common man

  • Vision of democracy was skewed 

    • Discriminatory towards Native Americans & African Americans

• Shared the fears of many Americans regarding the market revolution as a moral decay rather than progress 

• Opposed federal efforts to shape the economy or interfere in individuals’ private lives

The Party System

• Politics were ingrained with public life

• Party machines reached into every neighborhoods

  • Headed by professional politicians 

  • Benefits 

    • Jobs to constituents 

    • Ensured voters went to the polls on election days

• Spoils System: office based on loyalty, not necessarily family ties or elite

  •  Will eventually be the merit system

• Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet: an informal group of advisers who helped to write his speeches and supervise communication between the White House & local party officials

  • Mostly consisted of newspaper editors

Democrats & Whigs

• Democrats stood for the 'sovereignty of the people' as expressed in popular demonstrations, constitutional conventions, and majority rule as a general principle of governing

  • Northwest 

• Whigs advocated the rule of law, written and unchanging constitutions

  • Northeast 

Public & Private Freedom

• Party battles of Jackson era reflected public vs private definitions of American freedom & their relationship to governmental power 

• Whigs on Liberty

  • Believed in balancing government power to protect both public and private freedoms

  • Supported a stronger national government

• Democrats on liberty

  • Private entitlement best secured by local govt and endangered by powerful nation authority 

  • Weak national authority was essential to both private freedom and states’ right 

• During Jackson’s presidency, Democrats reduced expenditures, lowered the tariff, killed the national bank, and refused pleas for federal aid to internal improvements

Politics & Morality 

• Democrats considered individual morality a private matter 

  • Opposed attempts to impose a unified moral vision on society 

    • Temperance legislation: restricted or outlawed the production and sale of liquor, and laws prohibiting various kinds of entertainment on Sundays

    • Unrestrained individual competition  

  • Test of public policies was the extent to allowing scope for free agency

    • More aimed towards Protestants

• Free agency: individuals to make decisions, pursue their interests, and cultivate their unique talents without outside interference 

• Whigs insisted that liberty and power reinforced each other 

  • National govt could enhance freedom 

  • Prosperous and moral America 

  • Govt should create conditions for balanced and regulated economic development → prosperity for all classes & regions

  • Hierarchy of social class (similar to Federalist)

  • Insisted that in the US class, class status was not fixed since anyone could achieve upward mobility (contrast to Federalist)

• Shaping public morals during Jackson era

  • Banning prostitution & consumption of alcohol 

  • Regulating bad behavior

South Carolina & Nullification

• Tariff of Abominations: Tariff that was put on imported wool, negatively impacted southern economies, wanted it nullified in SC

• Southerners, especially those in South Carolina, believed the tariff of 1828 unfairly benefited Northern industries at the expense of Southern economies, which relied on imported goods

Calhoun’s Political Theory

• SC Exposition & Protest

  • South Carolina’s VP John C. Calhoun argued that states had the right to "nullify" or reject federal laws they deemed unconstitutional

  • Calhoun put forth the doctrine of nullification, which claimed that a state could invalidate federal laws within its borders

  • In 1832, South Carolina took action by passing an ordinance to nullify both the Tariff of 1828 and a revised tariff passed in 1832, refusing to collect tariff duties

• Webster-Hayne Debate

  • U.S. Senate debate of January 1830 between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina over nullification and states’ rights

The Nullification Crisis

• President Andrew Jackson, a strong supporter of federal authority, was outraged w/ SC nullification 

  • Issued a Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, warning that nullification would lead to secession and was essentially treasonous

• Concurrent majority: Calhoun’s theory that each major interest, including slaveholders, should have a veto over all measures that affected said interest

• Tariff of 1832 → SC declared tariffs would be nulled after the following Feb → Force Act → Compromise 

  • Compromise would gradually reduce prices over the course of several years, avoiding war, but these tensions would continue to rise for the next two-three decades, and contribute to the sectionalism that causes the Civil War

  • SC “nullified” Force Act 

• Force Act: authorized the president’s use of the army to compel states to comply with federal law

Indian Removal 

• Native Americans removed entirely; Jackson did not see them as a group deserving political freedom and felt they should be expelled from the land

• Indian Removal Act of 1830: law signed by President Andrew Jackson that permitted the negotiation of treaties to obtain the Indians’ lands in exchange for their relocation to what would become Oklahoma

• Cherokee’s assimilated into American culture the most, so leaders went to court to protect their rights → would establish the unique status of American Indians

The Supreme Court & the Indians

• Many pushed back against the states, claiming they had been given land and promised reservations previously

  • Worcester v. Georgia / Cherokee Nation v. Georgia: the Supreme Court agreed; the states made a pact and they were legally binding

    • Jackson said, “John Marshall made his decision - let him enforce it,” but he did not enforce the promise of land, and Natives had no support 

• Trail of Tears: relocated Native people to modern day Oklahoma - “trail on which we cried” - many died, was a horrific representation of how Natives would be treated moving forward

• William Apess

  • Was the first Native American to publish a significant autobiography, A Son of the Forest

  • In his autobiography, Apess called for fairness and coexistence between Native Americans and whites, urging whites to treat Native Americans justly

• Effects of Indian Removal:

  • Indian Removal reinforced the racial definition of American freedom and nationhood

  • By 1840, most whites saw Native Americans as a thing of the past, a relic of earlier American history

  • As settlers pushed westward, Native Americans in the West also faced the threat of removal

The Bank War & After

Biddle’s Bank

• Nicholas Biddle

  • Effectively used the institution’s power to curb the overusing of money by local banks and to create a stable currency throughout other nation 

• In 1832, Henry Clay and other Bank supporters pushed a bill through Congress to recharter the Bank four years early

  • Hoped to force Jackson into a politically difficult decision as he sought reelection 

  • Jackson, however, responded with a powerful veto

    • Famously argued that the Bank was unconstitutional, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) that upheld it

• Jackson’s Veto Message of the Bank Recharter Bill

  • The Bank had too much economic power and was dangerous to democracy

  • It favored the wealthy and the well-connected, neglecting the needs of the “humble members of society” like farmers and laborers

  • It was, in Jackson’s view, an unconstitutional overreach of federal power

  • The veto was highly popular among Jackson’s supporters and became a key issue in his re-election campaign

    • Jackson won the 1832 election decisively, which he saw as a mandate to destroy the Bank

      • Enhanced the power of presidency

The Pet Banks & the Economy

• After his re-election, Jackson moved to weaken the Bank further

  • Pet banks were more sympathetic to his views → action gradually drained the Bank of its power and financial resources → demise of bank 

• Pet Banks: federal funds to be withdrawn from the Bank and deposited into various state banks

• The Bank War had significant economic repercussions:

  • It contributed to a period of speculative lending and rapid economic expansion, which ultimately led to the Panic of 1837

  • Jackson’s dismantling of the Bank and focus on “hard money” influenced U.S. economic policy for years to come

The Panic of 1837

• led to a severe economic depression

• triggered by a combination of factors

  • speculative lending practices

  • the collapse of land prices

  • and economic policies from the Andrew Jackson administration

    • the Specie Circular 

    • and the dismantling of the Second Bank of the United States

• The Specie Circular: required land payments to be made in gold or silver rather than paper currency

• When banks began to fail and people lost confidence in paper money, a wave of bank closures and business bankruptcies followed

  • This panic caused widespread unemployment and hardship, lasting well into the 1840s and hitting the working class particularly hard

Van Buren in Office

• In 1837, the administration announced its intention to remove federal funds from the pet banks and hold them in the Treasury Department in Washington, under the control of government officials

• Independent Treasury (1840): completely separated the federal government from the nation’s banking system

  • Split Democratic Party 

    • Business-oriented opposed policy → shifted to Whigs

    • Agrarian wing opposed to all banking and paper money and uncomfortable w/ market revolution in general

Election of 1840

• William Henry Harrison was the Whig candidate in the 1840 presidential election

  • nominated instead of Henry Clay

• Harrison’s main appeal was his military success in the War of 1812, particularly against the British and Indians

  • similar to Andrew Jackson’s appeal during his presidential run

• The Whigs promoted Harrison as the “log cabin” candidate, presenting him as a champion of the common man, despite his wealth

  • This tactic was effective, even though it didn't reflect Harrison's actual lifestyle.

• Portrayed Martin Van Buren as an aristocrat who had wasted public money on luxuries like expensive furniture and gold spoons for the White House

• John Tyler was Harrison's running mate

  • Former Democrat from VA who had joined the Whigs after the Nullification Crisis

  • views often conflicted with those of the Whig Party, but he was seen as a way to gain support in the South

• The 1840 election marked the height of mass politics, with campaigning relying heavily on image and publicity, such as parades, publications, and rallies

• Voter turnout was incredibly high, reaching 80%, a level that would remain consistent throughout the 19th century

• Harrison won a sweeping victory, showcasing the effectiveness of the new political strategies

His Accidency

• John Tyler became president in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died

• Tyler was a former Democrat who had joined the Whig Party but quickly became at odds with Whig leaders

• Upon taking office, Tyler vetoed most of the Whig legislative agenda

  • proposals for a new national bank and higher tariffs

    • angered his party

• The Whig majority in Congress and much of Tyler's cabinet resigned in protest over his vetoes

  • many Whig newspapers mocked him, calling him "His Accidency" 

• Tyler’s presidency was largely ineffective, marked by lack of accomplishments and constant conflicts with his own party

• Tyler's time in office showed that political parties were crucial to a president's ability to govern, and without party support, Tyler struggled to achieve his goals

• His presidency set the stage for future political challenges and foreshadowed the difficulties that would come in maintaining stable political leadership in the U.S