Early american history

The Industrial Revolution

• The Industrial Revolution in the United States is the time between 1790-1860 when the

process of creating manufactured goods changed from artisans using hand tools in home

workshops to unskilled labor in factories using complex machines.

• It would change the way people worked, the goods they consumed, where people lived, the

amount of resources extracted from the land and the infrastructure of the nation.

• The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the mid 1700s and came to the United States

when Samuel Slater started a textile mill based on advanced British machinery in Pawtucket,

Rhode Island in 1793.

• The American free enterprise system enabled industry to grow rapidly in the United States.

Entrepreneurs were free to seek profit without strict government control and competition

fostered creativity and innovation. States allowed companies to become corporations that

could raise additional capital by issuing stock.

• American industry had the advantage of having abundant natural resources but Britain had

lower labor costs and took advantage of cheap transatlantic shipping rates to acquire American

cotton.

• To protect American manufacturers, the Federal government passed a series of tariffs. To

compete, American manufacturers sought to improve machinery and use cheaper labor.

• In 1822 in Lowell, Massachusetts, factories were built away from large cities and recruited

rural women as a source of cheap labor.

• Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin (removes seeds from raw cotton at a fast rate) and

interchangeable parts (creating identical parts that could be mass produced and swapped out

of broken machines).

19th Century Textile Mill

Life in the Industrial North

• Women found factory work liberating as it gave them more social and

economic freedom but there was great concern regarding the morally

corrupting nature of factory work.

• Artisans struggled to compete with factories and with the loss of

independence and standing. Some industries were more successful at

adapting than others. Some artisans thrived by making better quality

products. Artisans advocated on behalf of artisan republicanism, an

ideology that celebrated the independence of small scale producers.

• Trade unions were born out of workers’ frustrations of dealing with low

wages, long hours, and poor conditions.

• Urbanization - cities grew due to the influx of people moving to find work

in factories or associated businesses. New York became the nation’s

largest city by 1820. Cities became centers of culture but also of disease

and crime. In the 1840s and 1850s, cities would grow even larger due to

immigration. Irish immigrants came to northeastern cities and Germans

moved to the midwest.

• Canals connect waterways and give farmers and businesses the ability to

transport their goods to ports from far inland. By the 1840s, railroads

were beginning to supplant canals. On rivers, steamboats moved goods

and people. The telegraph enabled faster communication.

• The Market Revolution - Using new transportation and communication

technology, factories and farmers produced goods for distant markets.

Manufactured goods were now cheaper and readily available. Businesses

and farms grew larger and more efficient, moving to a more commercial

economy. The nature of worked changed and family life changed. Canals, Railroads, Stage Routes, and Telegraph Lines of the United States,

1851

The Cotton Kingdom of the Antebellum South

• King Cotton: the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 revolutionized cotton

production in the South. It combed seeds out of raw cotton bolls and enabled planters to

plant and process significantly more cotton. Demand for cotton was extremely high in the

North, Britain, and France and planters in the Deep South focused almost entirely on the

crop.

• Westward expansion in the South was driven by the desire to grow cotton. New

plantations meant the demand and price of slaves was high and the domestic slave

trade was a profitable business. In 1860, the total value of slaves in the South was

larger than all the factories, railroads, and banks in the North.

• Industry lagged and the South relied heavily on imported manufactured goods.

• Southern Society:

• Planter Elite - Small in number, owned 20 or more slaves, large plantations in the

tidewater or along rivers inland, wealthy, produced 50% of the region’s cotton,

dominated politics (republican aristocracy)

• Small Planters - Owned 1 to 5 slaves and a few hundred acres of land

• Yeoman Farmers - landowning small farmers, majority of population

• Landless Whites - rural, poor, farmed land that was less productive, tenant farmers,

laborers

• Free Blacks - small in percentage of total population, many lived in cities, worked as

skilled artisans, faced discrimination

• Slaves - subject to slave codes (forbidden from owning property, literacy, filing

lawsuits, legally and socially treated as property) Worked sunup to sundown in the

fields, as servants, or as skilled workers. Had no control over their lives.

The Cotton Kingdom of the South

The Missouri Compromise

• In 1819, there were 11 free states and 11 slave states.

Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state.

• Antislavery northern House members wanted to only

admit Missouri only if its constitution banned new slaves

from entering into the state and created a pathway for the

emancipation of current slaves.

• Southerners rejected the proposal on the following

grounds:

• Congress cannot impose conditions on Missouri that it

does not impose on other territories.

• The Constitution allows states to handle their internal

matters like marriage laws or slavery.

• Congress has no authority to infringe upon the

property rights of slaveowners.

• Henry Clay brokered a compromise that would allow

Maine to join as a free state in 1820 and Missouri to join

as a slave state in 1821. Southerners accepted a

prohibition of slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of

the 36-30 line.

The Missouri Compromise

The Rise of Populism

• Populism: a political approach that strives to appeal to

ordinary people who feel that their concerns are

disregarded by established elite groups. It promotes the

interests of “the people” which are seen as a morally

good force against “the elite” which are seen as self-

serving and corrupt.

• By the 1820s, most states expanded suffrage (right to

vote) to all white men, removing property

requirements which were being viewed as promoting a

tyranny of the privileged.

• New voters tended to vote for candidates that dressed

simply and endorsed more democratic policies like

restricting imprisonment for debt, low taxes, and

squatters’ rights on unoccupied land. Voters

participation rose considerably between 1824 and 1844.

• Political parties rose in prominence and served as

means to create a political order based on party identity

rather than family connections.

• Elected officials practiced political patronage: rewarding

government positions to individuals for loyalty and

electoral support. Voting Participation in Presidential Elections 1824-1844

The Election of 1824

Candidates

John Quincy Adams

•Massachusetts, New England, son of former president, Harvard educated, successful Secretary

of State

Andrew Jackson

•Tennessee, the West, hero of New Orleans, self made man, former general, Senator

Henry Clay

•Kentucky, the West, Speaker of the House, the American System (program of national

economic development that called for a strengthening of the Second Bank of the US, high

tariffs that would protect northern industry but also use the revenue to fund internal

improvements like roads and canals; favored in the West and North but opposed in the South

which opposed tariffs and favored rivers for transport).

William Crawford

•Georgia, the South, Secretary of the Treasury, opposed the American System as a consolidation

of power in Washington, chosen by the Republican caucus (meeting of party leaders) as the

party’s nominee.

No candidate received a majority of the electoral votes needed to win (131) so the House of Representatives

decided the election. According to the 12th Amendment, the top three candidates were considered.

Henry Clay opposed Andrew Jackson who he considered a “military chieftain”. As Speaker, he formed a

coalition to throw their support behind John Quincy Adams.

State delegation vote in the House:

John Quincy Adams - 13

Andrew Jackson - 7

William Crawford - 4

Henry Clay - Withdrawn from consideration

Adams would later make Clay his Secretary of State, a move that Jackson and his supporters called a

“corrupt bargain”.

Jackson and his supporters called themselves “Democrats” and opposed John Quincy Adams and Henry

Clay’s “National Republicans”.

Presidential Election, 1824

John Quincy Adams’ Presidency

1825-1829

• Adams called for the use the Federal government to create a national

university in Washington, fund scientific exploration in the Far West, a

uniform standard of weights and measures, and to implement Clay’s

American System.

• Adams had support in the North and Midwest but little in the South.

Southerners opposed Federal funding of internal improvements

claiming they were the responsibility of the states and feared a

consolidation of power in Washington.

• Tariff of 1828: Tariffs had broad political support with the National

Republicans and Democrats both supporting it. In 1828, Adams

signed the Tariff of 1828 which raised duties significantly on textiles

and iron goods.

• The South opposed the tariff as it was seen as benefitting the North

and forcing southerners to pay more for imported manufactured

goods they could not produce themselves. Expansionist minded

southerners also opposed Adams due to his support of treaty-

guaranteed Indian land rights. John Quincy Adams

Election of 1828

• Jackson and the Democrats promoted political

equality, securing a coalition of southern

planters, northern artisans threatened by

industrialization, small farmers, and

expansionists that approved of his Indian

fighting past.

• Southerners opposed Adams due to his

support of the Tariff of 1828, which Jackson

also supported.

• An ugly campaign in which both candidates

engaged in mudslinging (criticizing each

other’s personality and morals).

• Jackson won the presidency, the first from

west of the Appalachians, with a coalition of

small town and rural southerners and

westerners. Presidential Election, 1828

Jackson Governing for the Common Man

“The sovereignty of the people, the rights of states, and a light and simple government” - Jackson supporter

• To make policy, Jackson relied on the advice of his “Kitchen

Cabinet”, an informal group of political allies and newspaper

editors.

• Jackson created a disciplined national party by bringing

patronage (Spoils System) to the national level. He rejected

the idea that governmental positions should be held across

administrations in order to develop expertise. Jackson

insisted that new administrations should hire their own people

and to end a permanent, non-elected office-holding class.

• Jackson attacked the American System and any Federal

attempt to consolidate government sponsored economic

plans, believing the power belonged to the states.

• Tariff of 1832: a lower tariff than 1828 which southernerss

had come to call the “Tariff of Abominations”. Southerners

were growing distrustful of the Federal government on issues

like tariffs and slavery. Andrew Jackson

The Nullification Crisis

• Tariffs: 1816, 1824, 1828, 1832. South’s concern: the North gets rich at the

expense of the South.

• South Carolina responded to the Tariff of 1832 by adopting an Ordinance of

Nullification, arguing states had the right to void Federal laws and would

refuse to collect the duties on the tariff. They threaten to secede over the

issue, no other state joins.

• Jackson’s Vice President, John C. Calhoun, argued Federal laws that favored

one section of the nation over another were illegitimate and unconstitutional.

He resigns as Vice President in 1832. As a national statesman, Calhoun

supported tariffs but as a sectional leader, he is against it.

• Nullification Doctrine - Sovereign states had a compact which established

the Constitution. States had the right to nullify Federal laws that act unequally

on various states. Tariff are the issue but states’ rights is the principle.

• Jackson threatens to march Federal troops on South Carolina. Congress

passes the Force Bill in 1833 allowing the use of the military to collect tariff

duties.

• Clay Compromise - reduce the tariff over 10 years. South Carolina backs

down from secession but nullifies Force Bill in a symbolic move.

• Tariff issue is settled but states’ rights is not.

John C. Calhoun

The War on the Bank

• The Second Bank of the United States, founded in 1816, operated under a 20

year charter and was privately managed with the Federal government owning 20

percent of its stock.

• Its role was to stabilize the nation’s money supply which were issued by state

banks. Those banks promised to redeem paper money on demand with with

gold and silver. This was considered a cautious monetary policy (paper money

backed by gold and silver).

• Expansionist minded bankers demanded an end to Federal oversight of state

banks and an ability to issue more paper money and credit. This also risked

inflation.

• Jackson saw the Bank as unconstitutional that is was “subversive to the rights of

states” but also undemocratic in that it was “dangerous to the liberties of the

people,” and a privileged monopoly that used tax money to promote “the

advancement of the few at the expense of...farmers, mechanics, and laborers.”

• In 1832 and as a political move ahead of the coming election, Henry Clay and

Daniel Webster persuaded the head of the Bank, Nicholas Biddle, to seek an

early extension on the Bank’s charter, hoping to force Jackson into issuing a veto

and splitting Democratic support.

• After the veto, Jackson held firm on his position and it carried him to victory in

the Election of 1832. Jackson and his Vice Presidential running mate Martin Van

Buren, soundly defeated Henry Clay 219-49 in the electoral vote.

Nicholas Biddle

The War on the Bank

• In 1833, the Second Bank would close. Jackson fired his Secretary

of Treasury, William Duane, and appointed trusted adviser Roger B.

Taney as Treasury Secretary who then transferred the nation’s gold

and silver to state banks which critics referred to as “pet banks”.

Duane was fired because he believed he first had to notify

Congress of the action but it was not in session at the time. Taney

made the move without being confirmed by the recessed Senate.

• This action was criticized as illegal but Jackson claimed that

electoral victory gave him a mandate to kill the bank, an

unprecedented move for a president. Led by Henry Clay, the

Senate censured Taney and Jackson. Jackson claimed he had the

right as head of government to direct national policy and as

president, he was responsible to the people. The censure was

eventually expunged.

• Land speculation in the South led to state banks printing too much

currency and causing depreciation (soft money).

• Jackson issued the Specie Circular in 1836 requiring public lands

be purchased with gold and silver (hard money).

• Jackson ended Hamilton style national banking and halted the

economic activism of Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams.

The Second Party System

Democrats vs. Whigs 1830s - 1854

• Democrats - Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Roger Taney

• Distrustful of Federal government (anti-Bank, against Federal activism in economy like internal improvements, threat to

individual liberty)

• Agrarianism and the Common Man (gained support from southern planters, frontiersman, small farmers) but also artisans,

laborers, and immigrants.

• Rotation in office (using the Spoils System to change Federal government employees to prevent corruption and to bring

more common people into government positions)

• Whigs - Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster

• Activist Federal government (economic expansion through the national bank and internal improvements, American System)

• Anti-Jackson

• More optimistic (helping specific groups, like the wealthy, would create opportunity for all). Supported reform movements.

• Support from more upscale (middle class and up), better educated, urban, entrepreneurial (meritocracy)

• Neither party took a stand on the issue of slavery

• Parties began to use nominating conventions (a meeting of party members from across the country) instead of a caucus to

pick presidential candidates.

Indian Removal

• By the late 1820s, there were calls in the South and Midwest to resettle Native Americans west of

the Mississippi River. Gold had been discovered in western Georgia on Cherokee land and the

legislature looked to remove them from the state. Most Indians did not want to give up their

ancestral lands. Some had assimilated into white American society.

• Indian Removal Act of 1830 - narrowly passes Congress. Creates Indian Territory in what is

today Oklahoma and promises money and reserved land to Native Americans that would give up

their land east of the Mississippi River and move to the new territory.

• Cherokee use the Supreme Court to fight back:

• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) - Cherokee claimed the status of a foreign nation which

the court rejected. Marshall declared they were a “domestic dependent nation”.

• Worcester v. Georgia (1832) - Missionary Samuel Worcester sought to establish the

sovereignty of the Cherokee nation and push back against Georgia state law forbidding white

Americans from living on Cherokee land, effectively governing over Cherokee territory and

stripping them of their sovereignty. Marshall held that Indian nations were “distinct political

communities with territorial boundaries, within which their authority is exclusive and

guaranteed by the United States”. Therefore, Georgia could not remove the Cherokee as it

would violate Federal treaties.

Indian Removal

• Jackson’s response to Worcester decision: “John

Marshall has made his decision, now let him

enforce it.”

• In 1835, US officials negotiated the Treaty of New

Echota with a minority Cherokee faction for them

to resettle by May 1838. Only 2,000 moved.

• President Van Buren ordered the use of the

military to enforce the treaty.

• 14,000 Cherokee forcibly moved in what is known

as the Trail of Tears, a 4 month journey in which

3,000 died of starvation and exposure.

• Resistance to Indian Removal

• Black Hawk War (1832) in Illinois and

Wisconsin

• Seminole War (1835-1842) in Florida.

• Fought a successful guerrilla war to retain

lands.

Indian Removal

The Impact of Jackson’s Presidency

• Upheld national authority during the Nullification Crisis

• Expanded presidential power (use of veto, actions during the War on

the Bank)

• Brought back Jeffersonian ideals (curbing Federal power, lowered

tariffs, ended Federal internal improvements)

• Replaced John Marshall with Jacksonian Roger B. Taney who would

serve as Chief Justice from 1835-1864 and challenged Marshall’s

nationalist decisions with his states’ rights decisions.

• Charles River Bridge Co. v. Warren Bridge Co. (1837) - a

legislative charter did not bestow a monopoly and a competing

bridge may be built to promote the general welfare. (Challenges

Contracts Clause)

• Mayor of New York v. Miln (1837) - states can inspect the health

of arriving immigrants. (States’ rights)

• Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky (1837) - a bank owned by the state

of Kentucky can issue currency despite the Constitution stating

that states cannot issue “bills of credit”. (States’ rights)

Roger B. Taney

Martin Van Buren’s Presidency

1837-1841

• Martin Van Buren was the architect of the Democratic Party and Jackson’s handpicked successor.

• The Whigs ran four candidates to appeal to different regions in an effort to keep Van Buren under an

electoral majority and force a House vote. They were unsuccessful but managed to win 49 percent of

the popular vote.

• Panic of 1837 - a financial crisis that led to a major economic depression that would last through the

1840s.

• Finding itself low on monetary reserves, the Bank of England sharply limited the amount of credit

given to the United States after funding a great deal of American westward expansion and

infrastructure projects.

• To pay back their British creditors, planters, merchants, factory owners, and canal corporations

had to withdraw specie (gold and silver) from state banks.

• The closure of the Bank of the United States and transfer of gold and silver to state “Pet Banks”

across the country, limited the amount of specie available for banks in the East to lend and thus

lending slowed.

• British demand for southern raw cotton dropped and prices fell 25%.

• State banks in the South and West had relaxed lending standards.

• The Specie Circular led to a drop in land prices.

• Banks ran out of specie, prompting runs and bank closures.

• Many Americans blamed Jackson and the Democrats for the depression, a view that was exacerbated

by Van Buren’s laissez faire approach, setting the stage for the Election of 1840 and the first Whig

president.