Period 4: 1800-1848

Question 1

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What happened to the two-party system after 1816?

Answer 1

The Federalist party lost power, interrupting the two-party system and leaving the Republican Party alone.

Question 2

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Describe the Republicans by the 1820s.

Answer 2

They were acting like the early federalists, calling for centralization, and economic development. A new opposition party formed to contrast the federal gov’s role in the growing economy.

Question 3

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How was James Monroe’s election different from previous elections?

Answer 3

James Monroe ran unopposed. Until the Federalist party ended in 1820, candidates had been nominated by the two caucuses of the two parties in Congress.

Question 4

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Describe the election of 1824 and the overthrow of “King Caucus.”

Answer 4

-Republican caucus nominated William H. Crawford of GA, and other candidates were nominated by outside forces: state legislatures and irregular mass meetings
-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and Senate member Andrew Jackson were such alternate candidates.
-Jackson was new to Congress, but was a military hero with Southern political ties
-Jackson received more popular and electoral votes than the others, but not a majority, so the House of Representatives had to choose from the top 3 candidates.
-Crawford was too ill, Clay was out of the running
-Clay supported Adams because he was a nationalist, likely supporting Clay’s System, and because Jackson was his rival. Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State.
-This was labeled the “Corrupt Bargain of 1824” by Jacksonians

Question 5

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Was President John Adams a nationalist?

Answer 5

Yes. He supported Clay’s American System.

Question 6

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What were some of President Adams’ diplomatic frustrations?

Answer 6

-PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCE:
-Appointed delegates to an international convention called in Panama by Simón Bolívar in 1826, but some Southerners opposed going because black Haitian leaders would be present.

Question 7

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What were President Adams’ frustrations with GA?

Answer 7

-The state gov wanted to remove remaining Creeks and Cherokees from land promised to them in a treaty.
-Georgians extracted a new treaty from a faction of the tribe in 1825. Adams said the treaty had no legal force, but GA proceeded with Native American removal.

Question 8

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was President Adams’ Tariff of Abominations?

Answer 8

The Tariff of Abominations was added to imported goods in 1828. It was supposed to protect New England woolen manufacturers from artificially low British textile prices, but it increased prices on raw materials to gain support from middle and western states.
-Thus, everyone, especially Southerners, disliked the tariff in the end.

Question 9

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What two-party system was forming among the Republicans by 1828?

Answer 9

John Quincy Adams = National Republicans = support for economic nationalism

Andrew Jackson = Democratic Republicans = assault on privilege and widening of opportunity

Question 10

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Describe the political mudslinging of the 1828 election.

Answer 10

-Jacksonians: “Adams = extravagance”

-Adams’ supporters: “Jackson killed militiamen in Cold Blood in the War of 1812 and is a bigamist.” Supported in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

Question 11

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Describe the immediate result of Jackson’s election.

Answer 11

-The “age of the common man” began
-Crowds swarmed into the White House: “The reign of King ‘Mob’”

Question 12

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How did Jackson broaden the franchise?

Answer 12

-states altered Constitutions to allow non-property-owning and non-tax-paying white males to vote.
-older states feared losing residents to new, more inclusive western states
-the majority of states allowed the people to choose the presidential electors by 1828.

Question 13

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was Daniel Webster’s argument against property-qualifications reform?

Answer 13

-Conservative MA delegate
-Power naturally follows property.
-Ultimately, property qualifications for voting were removed in MA, but all voters still had to pay taxes and the governor had to own substantial property.

Question 14

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What happened in the New York Convention of 1821?

Answer 14

James Kent led conservatives in arguing in support of property qualifications, but reformers had these qualifications removed.

Question 15

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What caused the creation of the “People’s Party” in 1840?

Answer 15

The conservative Rhode Island legislature prevented the majority of men from voting, and also blocked reform. In response, Thomas Dorr created the “People’s Party,” which drafted its own constitution. The Dorrities started setting up their own government with Dorr as governor, but Dorrities started to be arrested, and ultimately, Dorr surrendered.
-The insurrection caused the old gov to greatly broaden the franchise.

Question 16

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Who was Alexis de Tocqueville?

Answer 16

-French aristocrat who wrote “Democracy in America” after researching 1830s America. -He helped spread the idea of American democracy to France and Europe.

Question 17

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

When and how did political parties become accepted?

Answer 17

-Party loyalty and party participation → increased voter participation
-In the 1820s and 1830s, American stopped seeing them as political evils, instead seeing them as essential and desirable
-Van Buren’s Bucktail/Albany Regency party in NY following the War of 1812 challenged governor De Witt Clinton’s established party, arguing that only institutionalized parties, grounded in the populace at large, could ensure democracy and prevent the rise of colosed elite. Competing parties would create a check + balance system.
-By 1830, a national-scale 2nd party system had developed: anti-Jackson forces = WHIGS, Jacksonians = DEMOCRATS

Question 18

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was Jackson’s stance on Native Americans and blacks?

Answer 18

Believed they should be subjugated to protect whites

Question 19

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was Jackson’s stance on the “Spoils’ System”

Answer 19

-Believed offices belonged to people
-Removed a total of ⅕ of officeholders, but mostly bc they were being corrupt and not for partisanism
-Affirmed the Spoils System-appointed supporters to offices
-Resented congressional caucus for favoring elites, so in 1832, Democrats held a national convention to support his reelection. In 1831, the anti-Masons had been the first to hold such a convention, and in later generations, some saw these gatherings as corrupt and exclusive, while others viewed them as a triumph for democracy.
-power not truly transferred to the people→ allies always appointed and delegates were members of local party chapters, not common men.

Question 20

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was Calhoun’s stance on nullification?

Answer 20

-Supported Tariff of 1816 as a protectionist, but by the 1820s, many SC people resented 1828 Tariff of Abominations. They believed in stagnated the economy (rather than the exhaustion of SC farmland)
-Some SC people wanted to secede, but Calhoun suggested nullification
-Drew on ideas in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798-1799), citing the tenth amendment
-Van Buren was Calhoun’s enemy

Question 21

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the relationship between Jackson and Van Buren?

Answer 21

-Jackson appointed NY governor Van Buren Secretary of State in 1829, welcoming into his “Kitchen Cabinet.”
-The Peggy Eaton Affair drove a wedge between Calhoun and / Van Buren and Jackson in 1828, causing Jackson to chose Van Buren as his successor in 1831.

Question 22

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the Webster-Hayne debate?

Answer 22

-CT senator suggested all W land sales and surveys temporarily be discon’t to slow the growth of slavery.
-Robert Y. Hayne, SC senator, responded by arguing this slow growth would only allow the E to retain its power. He hoped this would encourage Westerners in Congress to lower the Tariff of Abominations, hinting the W and S would combine to fight tyranny
-MA senator and nationalistic whig Daniel Webster attacked Hayne and Calhoun, stating that their arguments challenged the Union
-Hayne responded w/ defense of nullification
-Webster published his popular “Second Reply to Hayne”
-Jackson responded to Calhoun icily

Question 23

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the nullification crisis?

Answer 23

-Congressional tariff bill passed in 1832 that failed to ease tariff of abominations
-SC state convention nullified 1828 and 1832 tariffs
-Calhoun replaced Hayne as senator, Hayne became governor
-Jackson argued nullification was treason & sent warship and revenue ships to SC.
-Jackson proposed a force bill in 1833 to allow the president to use the military to see that acts of congress were obeyed
-SC was divided and Henry Clay devised a compromise: tariff lowered so that by 1842 it would reach its 1816 level
-force bill and compromise passed in 1833, SC repealed nullifications on tariffs, Calhoun and others claimed it was a victory for nullification

Question 24

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the white attitude towards Native Americans at this time?

Answer 24

-uncivilized → uncivilizable
-Jackson supported N.A. removal (earlier massacre of Creeks in the Creek War)
-Whites wanted N.A. land and feared western border conflicts

Question 25

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the Black Hawk War?

Answer 25

-Earlier treaty had ceded tribal lands in Illinois to US, but Sauk and Fox under Black Hawk’s leadership, refused to recognize the treaty.
-Crossed back into their vacant land in Illinois in desperate need of food and supplies
-Whites responded to this “invasion” with state milita and federal troops
-Continued massacre even after Black Hawk surrendered.
-Black Hawk captured and forced to tour the US.

Question 26

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What were the “Five Civilized Tribes?”

Answer 26

-Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw tribes with agrarian settlements and successful economies in western GA, AL, MS, and FL.
-Cherokees had own written language and constitution w/ independent nation (1827)
-more closely tied to lands than nomadic tribes to their N because of white pressures to “civilize”
-federal gov worked to make treaties for removal
-AL, GA, and MA state legislatures felt the federal gov was taking too long, and passed state laws to regulate the tribes

Question 27

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the Removal Act (1830)?

Answer 27

-Designated money to aid negotiations with the tribes
-State and federal pressures on tribes
-Cherokee appealed to Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia in 1831 and 1832 that seemed to somewhat support the tribe.
-Jackson ignored the rulings
-Federal gov gained treaty with Cherokee faction in 1835 that ceded lands in return for a reservation
-Cherokee mostly ignored the treaty, but Jackson sent an army under General Winfield Scott to force them out.

Question 28

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the Trail of Tears?

Answer 28

-Forced removal of the Cherokee
-⅛ of emigrés perished
-Jackson argued the trail protected N.A. from white encroachment
-All 5 tribes faced similar fates between 1830 and 1838.
-Seminoles in FL resisted removal under leadership of Chieftan Osceola. Runaway enslaved blacks helped Seminoles in the Seminole War, which the federal gov abandoned in 1842.

Question 29

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was “Indian Territory?”

Answer 29

-Created (in modern Oklahoma) under Indian Intercourse Act of 1834.
-It was close to what was considered the “Great American Desert,” so it seemed unlikely that Americans would ever inhabit this land
-tribes granted 32 million acres in inhospitable lands W of the Mississippi and were given $68 million in response to ceding over 100 million acres
-territories divided by tribe, surrounded by US forts
-N.A. unfamiliar with local topography and climates

Question 30

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the alternative to removal?

Answer 30

-Coexistence of whites and N.A.
-Ocurred in US history: in the Pueblos of NM, Fur Trading outposts of Pacific Northwest, settlers from Mexico, Canada, and US in societies in parts of TX and CA, lived closely with N.A. on Lewis and Clark expeditions

Question 31

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was Jackson’s stance on economic issues?

Answer 31

-Opposition to concentrated power in federal gov and aristocratic institutions
-Vetoed congressional measure proposing subsidy to Maysville Rd in Kentucky in 1830, saying it was unconstitutional and extravagant bc it was not an interstate road.

Question 32

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was Biddle’s Institution?

Answer 32

-1830s: Bank of the US was the most widespread and powerful US financial institution
-gov owned 1/5th of the bank’s stock, depositing its money there
-provided credit to enterprises
-issued dependable and exchangeable bank notes
-kept lesser banks in check
-Nicholas Biddle became president in 1823

Question 33

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Who opposed Biddle’s bank?

Answer 33

-”Soft-money” faction: circulation of more currency necessary to promote boom in economy and speculation. Bank of US prevented states from issuing paper money to degree that these people wanted.
-”Hard-money” supporters: against Bank of the US’s use of bank notes, believed currency should be based in gold and silver, suspicious of banks’ efforts towards economic expansion and speculation
-JACKSON was a hard-money supporter

Question 34

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How did Biddle respond when he learned that Jackson would not support the Bank’s recharterment?

Answer 34

-charter expected to expire in 1836
-Biddle cultivated allies such as Daniel Webster and Clay, persuaded him to apply for charter renewal before election of 1832 to make it a central issue
-Jackson vetoed recharter bill
-Clay ran for National Republicans in 1832, but lost.

Question 35

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How was the “Monster” destroyed?

Answer 35

-Before charter ended: Jackson removed gov deposits, fired series of two secretaries of the treasury who thought it would weaken US financial system, (third secretary, Taney, was Jackson’s friend, and placed gov money in “pet banks”)
-Jacksonians called Biddle “Czar Nicholas”
-Biddle called in loans and raised interest in response to withdrawal of gov money, hoping a short recession would force gov to recharter the bank
-People blamed Jackson as conditions worsened, but he told them to “Go to Biddle”
-Biddle began granting credit in abundance to help manufacturers
-Jackson won the Bank War, bank died 1836
-US in economic instability

Question 36

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What were the circumstances of the Taney Court?

Answer 36

-Jackson replaced Marshall with Taney in 1835
-Taney helped modify Marshall’s nationalism

Question 37

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the impact of the “Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge” (1837) case

Answer 37

-reversal of attitudes of Marshall’s court in Darmouth College case
-Democratic Taney argued gov existed to defend overall public happiness, not the charter interests of entrenched companies
-Revealed: Jackson’s principle of creating economic opportunity and killing monopolies

Question 38

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How was the Whig Party born?

Answer 38

-1830s: outrage towards Jackson’s quashing of nullification and the federal bank→ the Whig Party
-named after opposition to “King Andrew I” in Britain
-Second party system had begun!

Question 39

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What did democrats of the 1830s support?

Answer 39

-Access to opportunity and expanding economic and political opportunity
-Defense of Union and attack on corrupt privilege centers to protect these opportunities

Question 40

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Who were the democrats of the 1830s?

Answer 40

-The Locofus: workingmen, small businessmen, professionals from NE wanting to assault monopoly and privilege
-Irish and German Catholics–felt Democrats valued family life and shared their dislike for commercial development

Question 41

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What did the Whigs of the 1830s support?

Answer 41

-expanding federal gov power, encouraging industrial and economic development, consolidating US economic system
-feared W expansion
-supported the bank

Question 42

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

Who were the Whigs?

Answer 42

-NE merchants and manufacturers
-Wealth southern planters
-W farmers
-commercial class (usually NE immigrants)
-tended to be wealthier than democrats
-Anti-Masons (made connection with Anti-Mason movement in NY to gain support)
-Evangelical Protestants–Whigs seemed to support constant progress

Question 43

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How did the Whigs divide their loyalties in the election of 1836?

Answer 43

-Among the “Great Triumvirate:” Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun
-Clay won support for his Great American System, but his ties with W and political operator image served as liabilities
-Webster won support for his passionate speeches defending constitution, but connection with Bank and protective tariff, alcoholism, and dependence on rich men were liabilities
-Calhoun’s association with nullification basically disqualified him from presidency

Question 44

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What occurred in the election of 1836?

Answer 44

-Dems united behind Martin Van Buren
-Webster represented Whigs in NE, Hugh Lawson White of TN ran in the S, and William Henry Harrison of Ohio (hero of War of 1812) ran in the middle states and W. The Whigs were divided, hoping to throw the vote to the house.
-Van Buren won.

Question 45

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How was the economy by 1836?

Answer 45

-National economic boom
-canal and railroad construction at peak
-credit easy
-money plentiful
-land sales booming
-land sales and money from tariff of 1833 created federal budget surpluses, reducing national debt
-between 1835 and 1837, the US was out of its debt, with a surplus in the Treasury
-Congress passed Distribution Act in 1836 to require the federal gov to pay states its surplus annually in 4 quarterly installments
-states quickly distributed money to projects, furthering boom
-Jackson upset the gov was selling federal land in return for BANK NOTES
-issued his specie circular in 1836: gov would only accept money backed by gold or silver in exchange for lands–created panic in first months of Van Buren’s presidency

Question 46

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the Panic of 1837?

Answer 46

-Economic depression lasted for 5 years
-political disaster for democrats
-W Europe facing own panics→ withdrawal of European investments→ strained US banks
-series of US crop failures
-Continuation of specie circular and borrowing money to pay gov debts worsened the depression

Question 47

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How did Van Buren take action as president?

Answer 47

-created 10 hour workday
-proposed Independent Treasury: divorced gov from banks when approved in 1840

Question 48

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What was the Log Cabin Campaign?

Answer 48

-Whig party effort to portray William Henry Harrison as a “man of the people”
-actually had roots in VA aristocracy
-Harrison won 1840 presidential election
-Whigs nominated John Tyler of VA as VP
-Dems too disorganized to nominate a VP
*focus on simply acquiring votes

Question 49

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What happened to Harrison?

Answer 49

-Died of pneumonia one month into presidency
-Tyler not as willin as Harrison to defer to Clay and Webster (secretary of state), Whigs had weak ties to Tyler.
-Tyler had been a former dem who left dems after feeling Jackson was promoting too much egalitarianism and using bad methods
-Agreed to abolish Van Buren’s independent treasury system and raise tariff rates, but refused to support Clay in rechartering the Bank.
-He vetoed several Whig internal improvement bills
-Whigs read Tyler out of the party
-Webster eventually left cabinet, and Tyler replaced him with Calhoun, who had now rejoined the dms
*A faction of Whigs with aristocratic political ideals believing gov had duty to protect and expand slavery and believed in states’ rights were now rejoining the democrats

Question 50

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

How did the US end up back at the brink of war in he 1830s?

Answer 50

-1837 Caroline Affair
-Aroostook War (1838) over boundary confusions that existed since Treaty of 1783
-The Creole (1841)

Question 51

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What did the Webster Ashburton Treaty of 1842 accomplish?

Answer 51

-Peace between US and Britain
-Firm border between Canada and Maine
-protected important trade routes between US and Britain
-Ashburton sent notes to US promising no future “officious interference” with US boats
-avoided war
-Americans gained slightly over half of land in disputed area between Canada and Maine
-guaranteed Britain would not obstruct slave trade
-supported widely by Americans
-helped boost reputation of Tyler’s administration

Question 52

The Age of Jackson (1824-1844)

What did the Treaty of Wang Hya (1844) accomplish?

Answer 52

-Tyler administration opened first diplomatic relations with China
-Negotiated by Caleb Cushing