ch 10 main takeaways

  • Democratic Revolution

    • American Revolution → weakened elite-run society

      • wealthy notables dominated politics, bribed people, gentry-dominated

    • Maryland reformers argued against property qualificaitons for voting → Maryland allows more franchise for the reformers and to discourage people from moving westward → people begin to vote for relatable people, not the rich

    • Midwest and Southwest allow broad franchise → people in office appeal to regulars (no imprisonment for debt, lower taxes)

    • democratic politics were corrupt though

    • as notables’ powers fade, political parties/machines are created (based on parties rather than family connections)

      • Martin Van Buren = first political machine

        • patronage + spoils system by appointing allies into NY bureaucracy

      • caucuses continue party’s legislative agenda

  • election of 1824: 5 presidential candiates

    • Quincy Adams, Calhoun, Crawford, Clay, Jackson

    • states use popular vote instead of state legislatures to decide candidates

    • Jackson gets the most electoral votes, but no one gets absolute majority → using the 12th amendment, the House of Representatives decides → don’t trust Jackson, Clay helps Quincy Adams become president → Clay is Secretary of State

      • Jackson calls this a corrupt bargain

  • John Quincy Adams

    • Clay’s American System

      • protective tariffs

      • federaly subsidized roads and canals

      • national bank

    • South opposes his policies

      • tariffs place a higher price on manufactures

      • don’t want a bank that would make them bankrupt

      • “monied aristocracy”

      • say that states should fund improvement projects, not the federal government

    • Tariff of 1816: on English cotton cloth

    • Tariff of 1824: to protect manufacturers from English goods

    • Van Buren + Jackson → Tarrif of 1828: on raw materials + textiles + iron goods

      • help win north’s support for Jackson

      • south is unhappy, blames Adams, don’t need to protect its cotton and now need to buy expensive US textiles or expensive British textiles

      • Tariff of Abominations

    • Adams is sympathetic to Indians → ally of the savages, wants treaty-guaranteed land rights of Indians

  • election of 1828

    • huge Jacksonian publicity campaign

    • self-made man

    • Democrats, fighting for equality

    • appeals to many

      • hostile to corporation + American System → NE artisans and workers

      • Tariff of Abominations → Penn. ironworkers + NY farmers

      • judicious tariff → South

      • hostile to Indians → Southeast and Midwest

  • Andrew Jackson

    • Kitchen Cabinet, Van Buren as Secretary of State

    • patronage, rotation of officeholders (rather than permanence)

    • destroyed American System (believes mercantilism is unconstitutional)

      • no federal sudsidies for transportation

      • Second Bank

        • Clay and Webster try to extend charter early → Jackson vetoes it

        • Roger B Taney = head of treasury → transfers Bank’s gold and silver into pet bank, Jackson said that people voting for him means people wanted him to do this

    • Tariff of 1832 continues Tariff of Abominations → South Carolina’s and Calhoun’s Ordinance of Nullification

      • states have different interests

      • Jackson disregards nullification

      • Force Bill

    • Indian Removal Act of 1830

    • Black Hawk didn’t want to leave to LA Purchase territory → Bad Axe Massace

    • Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831): Cherokees are not a foreign nation, they’re domestic dependent nations

    • Worcester v. Georgia (1832): Cherokees are distinct and have guaranteed land under US

    • Jackson forces Cherokees on the Trail of Tears

    • Jackson fights the Seminoles in Florida

    • Taney Court

      • reversed nationalist and property rights

      • helped states’ rights and free enterprise

    • states revise their constitutions

      • legislatures based on population

      • all white men have franchise

      • election, not appointment

      • classical liberalism (laissez-faire), limited government intervention in economy

      • no special charters or loans to private businesses

    • causes the creation of the Whig Party (Webster and Clay)

      • mostly in North

      • Jackson is kinglike and tyrannical

      • evangelical Protestants

      • yeomen

      • Anti-Masons

  • economy

    • Working Men’s Parties

      • artisan republicanism

    • Panic of 1837

      • Bank of England stops sending money to US → people panic and withdraw money → financial crisis

      • government invests in infrastructure but instead is in debt from interest → European lenders stop lending

      • decline of union movement and Working Men’s Parties

      • blamed on Democrats (Jackson got rid of Second Bank, Jackon created Specie Circular; Van Buren refused to revoke Specie Circular, limited government failed)

  • Log Cabin Campaign

    • William Henry Harrison

      • Battle of Tippecanoe, War of 1812

    • Martin Van Ruin = manipulative, aristocratic

    • Harrison = self-made man

    • Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!

  • Harrison

    • dies

  • Tyler

    • basically a Democrat, is kicked out of Whigs

    • refuses to have a Bank or American System

    • Democrats regroup

      • gain immigrants

      • more appealing than Whigs’ moral reform and temperance