Political Changes Discussion

Changes to Federal Power

Increased:
  • Transcontinental railroad
  • Acquisition of territories
  • The rise of Andrew Jackson (increases the power of the executive branch)
  • The American System   * Created banks, tariffs, roads and canals
  • Missouri Compromise: gave federal government the power to determine which states were slave and free
  • SCOTUS cases   * Marbury vs. Madison   * Gibbons v. Ogden   * Dartmouth v. Woodward
  • Force Bill : using federal troops to collect taxes
  • Indian Removal Act
  • War of 1812: increases the size of the military, fends off a challenge of Britain, gets fishing rights on the coast of Labrador, sets up parameters of Oregon territory
  • Mexican American War: leads to acquisitions
  • Era of Good Feelings: Democratic Republican Party is the only in power, rapid expansion
Decreased:
  • Jacksonian Democracy   * State banks   * Bank War
  • Jefferson reduced taxes, cut government budget, and limited the army to 3,000 men
  • Nullification Crisis
  • Jacksonian Democracy: spread suffrage

Sectional Tension/Unification

Tensions
  • Missouri Crisis/Compromise   * South wanted slavery in Missouri   * North wanted no slavery in Missouri
  • Women’s rights movements   * North is heart of movement   * South is traditional   * West: women attain rights
  • Mexican American War   * Treaty→Mexican Cession→Compromise of 1830→North wants California free→Slave trade banned→S: strict fug. slave law, popular sov.
  • Texas Annexation/Mexican-American War   * North didn’t want to Annex Texas   * South did because it would be another slave state   * Causes:     * Texas Revolution→Texas Annexation→ Mexican-American war
  • Nullification Crisis   * Northerners support and benefit from the tariff   * Southerners oppose it and puts it at a disadvantage   * Puts a tariff on imported goods from Europe to increase domestic economy and decrease reliance on Europe
  • Elections of 1824-28
Unification
  • Second Great Awakening   * provided unifying moral order and sense of spiritual community through camp meetings
  • War of 1812→Era of Good Feelings   * Unifies America   * Not a very long war which means it isn’t unpopular   * We don’t lose
  • The American System   * North: Manufacture, Trade, Merchants   * South: raw materials, markets   * West: raw materials, markets   * Tariffs, National Bank, Infrastructure   * Raw materials from the south and west are imported to the north and turned into finished goods     * then sold back to the south and west for an inflated price
  • Missouri Compromise at first
  • Era of Good Feelings
  • Compromise of 1850

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