Chapter 10Democracy in America,

1815–1840

The Triumph of Democracy•Property and Democracy

–After the Revolution, no new state required property ownership to vote, and in older states, constitutional conventions in the 1820s and 1830s abolished property qualifications, partly because the growing number of wage earners who did not own much property demanded the vote.

The Triumph of Democracy• The Information Revolution

– The market revolution and political democracy expanded the public sphere and the world of print.

– This “information revolution” was helped by the invention of the steam-powered printing press,• printed much more • far less cost.

– A new style of sensational journalism catered to a mass readership, which was soon created in newspapers with a total circulation higher than that of all Europe.

The Triumph of Democracy• The Limits of Democracy

– As democracy triumphed, the grounds for political exclusion shifted from economic dependency to natural incapacity.

– Gender and racial differences were seen as part of a single, natural hierarchy of innate endowments.

– Women and non-whites were deemed lacking in qualities necessary for democracy and self-government.

Nationalism and Its Discontents• The American System

– The Bank of the United States had expired, transportation was poor, and manufacturing had been required to counter the British embargo.

– President James Madison proposed a plan for government-promoted economic development that became known as the “American System.”

– This system would rest on a new national bank, a tariff on imports to protect and foster manufacturing, and federal financing of road and canal construction, called “internal improvements.”

• Banks and Money

– The Second Bank of the United States (BUS), a private, profit-making corporation that served as the government’s financial agent, soon became resented by many Americans.

– The BUS was also tasked with regulating the volume of paper money printed by private banks to prevent fluctuations and inflation (at this point the federal government did not print money).

Nationalism and Its Discontents

• BUS and the Panic of 1819– Rather than regulating the currency and loans

issued by local banks, the Bank of the United States contributed to widespread speculation, mostly in land, after the War of 1812.

– When European demand for American farm goods decreased in 1819, this speculative bubble burst. Dropping land prices ruined farmers and businessmen who could no longer pay their loans, banks failed, and unemployment spread in eastern cities.

Nationalism and Its Discontents

Nationalism and Its Discontents

• The Panic of 1819– The short-lived Panic of 1819 disrupted

the political harmony established after the war’s end.

• The Politics of the Panic– Most important, the panic reinforced

many American’s longstanding distrust of banks, and it undermined the reputation of the BUS, which was blamed for the panic.

Missouri Compromise

The issue of slavery

and the

movement West

1819 11 free states and 11 slave states

Problem- what to do with new territories?

Senate consist of : 2 representatives from each stateHouse of Representatives:

based on states population- slave states had more representatives

Why is this a problem?

1820- 2 territories want to enter

Maine

Missouri-(about 2,000 slaves)

What is the dilemma for Congress?

Missouri Compromisealso known as

The Compromise of 1820Maine to enter as a free state

Missouri as a slave state

Compromise stated:

No slavery north of 36° 30` latitude

Interactive map of Missouri Compromise

• http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/sectionalism/lesson1/

Quick fix

The Missouri Compromise was a temporary solution to the questions of slavery and territorial rights.

South’s ResponseSouth realize that this compromise

threatened the balance between free and slave states

WHY?

South felt the US would need territories from Mexico’s territory in which to expand slavery the only area left was in Arkansas

From Domestic to International

- To keep Russia from moving south into the U.S. from Alaska.

Monroe Doctrine

· North and South America should no longer be thought of as areas for European colonization.

· The U.S. would not interfere with European affairs, and European countries should not interfere with the affairs of any nation in the Western Hemisphere.GOALS:

- To protect the independence of new Latin American nations.

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & CompanyMap 10.2 The Americas, 1830

Political Factionalism in the North and West

• Emergence of the Whig Party– Support among commercial farmers and new urban

commercial classes in cities and towns– Grounded in market revolution, but supported broad

political agenda• Activist government, economic development, moral progress

• Emergence of the Democratic Party– Appealed to cultural traditionalists who had gained little

from the market revolution and who had no use for Whig moralism

– Especially popular among Irish Catholics– Opposed mixing of church and state that characterized

Whig moralism

Politics in the South

• Democrats strongest in up-country communities– Folks who either were or hoped to be beneficiaries of

the market revolution• Whigs strongest in plantation counties and areas

where their plans for internal improvement appealed to ambitious farmers– Demanded minimal government, low taxes, little

interference with personal matters• Unlike North and West, southern political

divisions had little to do with religion

The Politics of Economic Development

• Party differences over the role of government– Whigs favored activist government to support the

market– Democrats saw government as dangerous and

wanted it limited

• Banking question of central importance– Whigs saw banks as agents of economic progress

The Politics of Economic Development (cont.)

– Democrats distrusted banks and wanted them abolished

• Partisan squabbling over internal improvements– Democrats in Congress blocked federal

involvement– Whigs favored direct action by state government

to fund projects– Democrats opposed any direct government action

• Feared inequality, favoritism, privilege, debt, corruption

The Politics of Social Reform

• Political debate over public education– Parties agreed in principle on public education– Differed over extent and aims

• Whigs favored extensive, expensive, and centralized system

– Called for character building rather than skills training– Advocated state-level centralization

The Politics of Social Reform (cont.)• Democrats preferred local control

– Question of parochial education after the mid-1840s• Catholics demanded reforms of public schools or chance to

form their own schools• Opposed vehemently by Whigs

• Partisan disagreement over prisons and asylums for the insane– Whigs favored institutions for rehabilitation– Democrats favored institutions that isolated deviants– Most state systems were a mixture of the two approaches– Whigs generally approved of expensive and humane moral

treatment facilities for the insane– Most Democrats opposed better treatment for the insane as too

expensive

Social Reform in the South

• Whigs and Democrats generally united in opposing efforts at “social improvement”

• Region was culturally similar• Common rejection of big, activist government• Favorer individual moral improvement, not

public coercion• Reinforced personal independence and

patriarchy

Temperance as a Political Issue in the 1830s

• Whigs favored coercion rather than voluntarism– End licensing system for local liquor sales– Saw temperance as arm of evangelicalism

• Democrats rejected idea of government intervention in people’s lives– Favored reliance on personal choice

The Politics of Race

• Sizable free black population in many northern seaport cities– Took a variety of jobs– Discrimination became commonplace after the

1820s• Informal as well as official

• African Americans formed their own institutions– Entertainment venues, often integrated

The Politics of Race (cont.)

• Churches, schools, social clubs

• Racism in the democratic Party– Incorporated racism into their political agenda

• The consolidation of racist thought– Whites came to view blacks as treacherous and

wicked– Democrats saw blacks as unfit to be citizens of the

white republic

Emergence of an Antislavery Ideology• Not until the 1830s did many Americans actively oppose

slavery• Northern abolition was implicit condemnation of slavery in

the South• William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator began publishing in

1831• American Anti-Slavery Society organized in 1833• Logical extension of middle-class evangelicalism

– Yet attracted only a minority among middle-class evangelicals

• Demonstrated complicity of the Democratic Party in supporting slavery

Gender Issues as Political Questions

• Democrats accused of avoiding sentimental domesticity

• Whigs embraced “traditional” values– Focused on improving the character of individuals

rather than institutions

• Role of women in social improvement campaigns– Magdalen Society’s efforts to eliminate prostitution– Replaced by Female Moral Reform Society

Gender Issues as Political Questions (cont.)• Commitment to raise “proper” boys• Campaign against the sexual double standard• Assumed responsibility for defining what was

respectable and what was not• Women’s rights movement• Assuming greater roles within the family• Played prominent role in antislavery movement

– Logical step to think, then, of women’s equality with men

• Seneca Falls Convention, 1848– Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Web

The Election of 1824and the

The Corrupt Bargin!

2) The Corrupt Bargain

The Era of Good Feelings has come to an end….

2) The Corrupt Bargain • The common man (all

white males) are now allowed to vote

• No one won the majority vote

• Henry Clay threw in support for J.Q. Adams in exchange for being Sec. of State

Nation, Section, and Party

• Martin van Buren and the Democratic Party

• The Election of 1828

3) Jacksonian Democrats• Jackson emerges a symbol of democracy

• Democratic-Republicans split into Jacksonian Democrats and Republicans

• Jackson wins the Election of 1828

The Age of Jackson

• Public and Private Freedom• Politics and Morality

Sectionalism

Industrial North (pro business, trade, and tariffs), Agrarian South (cash crops, slavery, anti-tariffs) Frontier West (cheap land, internal improvements)

Sectional differences were increasing over economicsand political power-- slavery in the south and manufacturing in the north--*favoritism in congress

Tariffs and Nullification

Tariff of Abominations- an 1828 tax on imported wool with extremely high rates—the south had had enough

States’ Rights became a serious issue, as South Carolina and VP Calhoun began to consider nullification

TariffsProtective tariffs (taxes on imported products) were welcomed in the north and despised in the south- southern states viewed tariffs as favoring the Northern business elite

States’ Rights Doctrine- since each state voluntarily entered and therefore makes up the union, they should have powers equal to or greater than the federal government

Nullification- ignoring or rejecting a law deemed unfair

Nullification Act- South Carolina law which said the 1828 Tariff of Abominations and the 1832 tariff were null, void, and non-binding to the state

Nullification Crisis- Calhoun resigns as Vice President, officially declares the States’ Rights Doctrine, and South Carolina threatens to secede

Force Bill- Jackson calls on federal troops to prepare to invade South Carolina as a way to enforce the tariff

Henry Clay proposes a compromise where the tariff will decrease gradually over time- both sides reluctantly agree

Jackson’s Response to the Crisis

Hayne-Webster Debate- Daniel Webster sternly announces that, “liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable”-individual states can’t just “come and go” from the union, nor can they pick and choose which laws to follow

INDIAN REMOVAL IN THE UNITED STATES

Confederation Era Treaties• BRITISH PEACE TREATY OF 1783 ABANDONED INDIAN

ALLIES

• INITIAL AMERICAN POLICY TREATED ALL INDIAN TRIBES, EVEN FORMER ALLIES, AS CONQUERED PEOPLES AND DICTATED TERMS– ABANDONED POLICY DUE TO INDIAN RESISTANCE

• 1784 -TREATY OF FORT STANWIX WITH ONEIDA AND TUSCARORA

• 1785-86 - TREATIES OF HOPEWELL WITH CHEROKEE, CHOCTAW, CHICKASAW

• 1785-89 - TREATIES WITH SHAWNEE, WYANDOTT, DELAWARE, CHIPPEWA, OTTAWA

ORIGINS OF INDIAN REMOVAL

IN THE LATE 1780S U.S. OFFICIALS BEGAN TO URGE THE CHEROKEES TO ABANDON HUNTING AND THEIR TRADITIONAL WAYS OF LIFE AND TO INSTEAD LEARN HOW TO LIVE, WORSHIP, AND FARM LIKE CHRISTIAN AMERICAN YEOMEN.

DESPITE CHEROKEE EFFORTS TO BECOME FARMERS AND “CIVILIZED” IN THE WHITE SETTLERS’ MINDS, THEY CONTINUED TO STRUGGLE AGAINST SETTLER ENCROACHMENT UPON THEIR LANDS.

As the population grew, the colonists pushed farther west into the territories occupied by the American Indians.

GEORGIA COMPACT OF 1802THOMAS JEFFERSON MADE A COMPACT WITH THE STATE OF GEORGIA IN 1802 TO ASSIST GEORGIA REMOVE ITS CHEROKEE INDIANS IF THE STATE AGREED TO EXTINGUISH ITS CLAIMS TO WESTERN LANDS (PRESENT DAY ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI).

TO ASSIST IN BRINGING PRESSURES FOR REMOVAL THE STATE OF

GEORGIA ADOPTED A NUMBER OF REPRESSIVE ACTS DEPRIVING

INDIANS OF PREVIOUSLY RECOGNIZED RIGHTS INCLUDING THE OPPORTUNITY TO TESTIFY IN COURT AS WELL AS LEGISLATION PROVIDING FOR A LOTTERY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO WHITES OF INDIAN LANDS HISTORICALLY OWNED AND PRESENTLY

OCCUPIED BY THE CHEROKEES.

Inevitably, this movement led to clashes over land.

How did the Proclamation of 1763 attempt to solve this problem? Was it successful?

This proclamation forbade settlement west of the Appalachians in hopes of eliminating conflict between the colonists and the natives living in the Ohio River Valley.

EMERGENCE OF INDIAN DEPARTMENT

• WAR DEPARTMENT APPOINTED INDIAN AGENTS

• OFFICE OF INDIAN TRADE (1806)

• BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS (1824)

• FORMALIZED BY CONGRESS IN WAR DEPARTMENT (1832)

• TRANSFERRED TO DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (1849)

DEVELOPMENTS IN INDIAN COUNTRY

• CHEROKEES AND OTHER TRIBES HELD RICH AGRICULTURAL LANDS

• CHEROKEE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED IN 1827

• GOLD DISCOVERED IN CHEROKEE COUNTRY IN 1829

• ACTIVE MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN CHEROKEE COUNTRY THROUGH BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONARIES

By the time Andrew Jackson became President in 1829, the native population east of the Mississippi River had dwindled to 125,000.

In contrast, the non-Indians population had risen to 13 million.

Jackson saw Indian Removal as an opportunity to provide for the needs of the white farmers and businessmen. He also claimed that removal was also in the best interest of the Indians. Why?

Jackson to the Indians:

“Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is gone, and many of your people will not work and till the earth. . . The land beyond the Mississippi belongs to the President and no one else, and he will give it to you forever.”

Many members of the “Five Civilized Tribes” (including

the Cherokee, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles) wanted to stay in their lands east of the

Mississippi River.

How did the Five Civilized Tribes try to avoid

removal?

1. Adopted white farming life style

2. Education of the Cherokee• WHILE THE MORAVIANS, WHO ESTABLISHED

SPRINGPLACE MORAVIAN MISSION, PRIMARILY WANTED TO BRING THE GOSPEL TO THE CHEROKEE, JAMES VANN FOCUSED UPON THE EDUCATION OF CHEROKEE CHILDREN.

• JAMES VANN CONTRIBUTED TO THE EDUCATION OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO LATER BECAME LEADERS IN THE CHEROKEE NATION—ELIAS BOUDINOT, JOHN BOUDINOT, JOHN RIDGE, SARAH RIDGE, STAND WAITIE AND JOSEPH VANN.

3. Had own written language

4. Established their own newspaper 

5.  Adopted white man’s idea of black slavery & established plantations

JAMES VANN

• BORN TO A SCOTS TRADER NAMED VANN AND A CHEROKEE WOMAN, WAHLI, IN 1768, JAMES VANN BECAME AN INFLUENTIAL CHEROKEE WITH VARIOUS BUSINESSES ALONG THE FEDERAL ROAD WHICH FORKED THROUGH THE CHEROKEE NATION IN THE EARLY 1800s.

Chief James Vann HouseCalled the "Showplace of the Cherokee Nation", this two-story classic brick mansion was built by Chief James Vann in 1804.

Decorated with beautiful Cherokee hand carvings done in natural colors of blue, red, green and yellow, the home features a cantilevered stairway and many fine antiques.

How did Georgia begin the removal process of the Cherokee

and the other members of the Five Civilized tribes within its border?

In an agreement with the federal government, the state of Georgia gave up claims to large tracts of western land in exchange for the federal government negotiating treaties for Indian removal.

Throughout the late 1820s, legal conflict over ownership of Cherokee lands led the issue to the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831In the 1820’s the legislatures of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi voted to invalidate treaties allowing special self-governing status to Indian lands.

Since the federal government was responsible for Indian policy, this caused a problem to federal authority, but the resisting states had presidential support.

President Andrew Jackson pushed for the U.S. Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act which allowed state officials to override federal protection of Native Americans.

Jackson sent federal officials to negotiate removal treaties, which most of the southern tribes signed except the Cherokees. They fought against their removal by using the law.

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831

John Ross- Cherokee Chief

William Wirt- Attorney general defending CherokeeJohn Marshall- Chief Justice

The Cherokee Nation wanted a federal injunction against laws passed by the state of Georgia for not permitting them their given rights.

The Supreme Court did not hear the case and ruled that it had no original jurisdiction, the Cherokee were a dependent nation with the United States.

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831

• Court ruled the Cherokee were not a sovereign nation, but a dependent one.

• Had no standing to bring a lawsuit to the Supreme Court. (no original jurisdiction)

• DID have a right to their land.

• Georgia ignored the ruling.

The Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Marshall ruled the Cherokee could keep their lands because of earlier federal treaties.

Furthermore, the court ruled the treaty was an agreement between two nations and couldn’t be overruled by Georgia.

What do you think President Jackson and the Georgia did

next?

Georgia ignored the court’s ruling. President Jackson refused to enforce the ruling. He

remarked, “Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”.

As part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, federal agents misled tribal leaders into signing removal treaties with the government.

In 1838, the Georgia militia was ordered to force the Cherokee out of Georgia.

17,000 Cherokees were brutally rounded up and marched to Indian territory in Oklahoma.

“… When I past the last detachment of those suffering exiles and thought that my native countrymen had thus expelled them from their native soil and their much loved homes, and that too in this [harsh] season of the year in all their suffering, I turned from the sight with feelings which language cannot express and “wept like childhood then.”

“… I felt that I would not encounter the secret silent prayer of one of these sufferers armed with the energy that faith and hope would give it (if there is a God who avenges the wrongs of the injured) for all the lands of Georgia!”

Adopted from “A Native of Maine, traveling in the Western Country” in New York Observer, Jan. 26, 1839 as found in Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians by Grant Foreman (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972).

As many as 4,000 died along the “Trail of Tears”.

“I fought through the Civil War and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by the thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew.”

Georgia Soldier involved in removal process

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & CompanyMap 10.5 Indian Removals, 1830-1840

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & CompanyMap 10.6 The Presidential Election of 1840