IV

IV. Economic Development, 1815-1820

A. Henry Clay's "American System"

1. Provisions

a. National bank

b. Protective tariffs

c. Internal improvements

2. Sectional implications

a. Bank

(1) East

(2) South

(3) West

b. Tariffs

(1) East

(2) South

(3) West

c. Roads

(1) East

(2) South

(3) West

3. Legislative accomplishments of 14th Congress

a. 2nd Bank of the United States

b. Tariff of 1816

c. Bonus Bill of 1816

B. Judiciary's (John Marshall's) Influence [Of 1106 decisions during his tenure (1801-35), Marshall voted with the majority in 1097].

1. Economic impact visible in such decisions as Fletcher v. Peck and Gibbons v. Ogden, establishing sanctity of contracts and encouraging competition.

2. Marshall asserted federal government's supremacy over the states in such cases as McCulloch v. Md.

C. U. S. Economic Dynamism, 1815-19, Displayed

1. East's "Yankee Ingenuity" visible in list of New England's leading exports:

2. South's "Generous Nationalism" visible in John C. Calhoun's vote for the Tariff of 1816, which he said was "good for the country".

3. West, a "Speculators' Paradise", visible in the speed and character of westward expansion.

4. Generally, this period witnessed rapid expansion, physical and economic, within a Jeffersonian democratic framework.

D. The Bubble Bursts

1. The Panic of 1819

a. Causes of Panic include a sudden reversal of trade balance just as note on La. Purchase fell due

b. Effects

(1) East - temporary setback

(2) South - Generous nationalism dried up and bitter extremism appeared in "Old South" as "Black Belt" superceded Atlantic coastal region as South's economic center

(3) West - A squatters' frontier; expansion continued but of a different (desperate) character

(4) Generally, props knocked from expectations; even after economic recovery, scars remained

2. Missouri Compromise - 1820

a. Clay's Compromise provisions

(1) Maine admitted as free state to balance Missouri's admission as a slave state

(2) Missouri's southern border (36 30') extended west would thereafter divide free soil from slavery

b. Long-term impact - Despite compromise, thinking Americans heard a "Firebell in the Night", realizing that slavery, clearly an issue capable of destroying the Union, would someday have to be confronted

V. The "Era of Jacksonian Democracy", 1820-40

{Is this an appropriate name for this period?}

A. The "Era of Good Feelings", 1815-24

{Is this an appropriate name for this period?}

1. 1815-19? No! An era of no political feelings, interest or sophistication, best seen in public's reaction to the Compensation (or "Salary Grab") Act of 1816. Ninety percent turnover in 1816 Congressional elections reveals public's failure to appreciate 14th Congress's record and the democratic implications of the act, which would theoretically allow non-rich to hold office.

2. 1819-24? No! An era of bad feelings following the Panic of 1819, which led to demands that property ownership requirements for voters be dropped. State after state did so, and by 1840 virtually all adult white men could vote.

Jackson's role? His involvement in national politics after 1824 heightened demands that non-property owners be enfranchised and motivated more of those already eligible to vote to do so, but the movement began before his involvement, and he may have been more a result of this change than a cause of it.

B. The Election of 1824

1. Candidates

a. Wm. H. Crawford - GA (Caucus choice)

b. Henry Clay - KY (Congress his stronghold)

c. John C. Calhoun - SC

d. Dewitt Clinton - NY

e. John Quincy Adams - MA

f. Andrew Jackson - TN

(1) Controversial background

(2) Political assets

(a) "Hero of New Orleans"

(b) No political record

2. Outcome

a. Popular vote b. Electoral vote

Crawford

Clay

Calhoun (Withdrew to seek and win Vice Presidency)

Clinton (Favorite son candidacy failed to materialize)

Adams

Jackson

c. House vote

C. The Election of 1828

1. Candidates

a. Adams

b. Jackson

2. The campaign

3. Outcome

a. Popular vote b. Electoral vote

Adams

Jackson

D. Jackson's first term

1. Great expectations, visible in inaugural celebration

2. Jackson's patronage policy (the "Spoils System")

a. Dangers

(1) Loss of experience

(2) Potential for corruption

b. Potential benefits

(1) Prevented entrenched bureaucracy

(2) Can allow efficient implementation of a popular President's policies

3. The Peggy Eaton Affair

a. Short-term distraction

b. Helped determine the Presidential succession

E. The Election of 1832

1. Henry Clay's efforts to make Jackson vulnerable

a. Internal improvements

(1) Clay's Maysville Road Bill - 1830

(2) Jackson vetoed it, but by signing dozens of less publicized improvements bills, he maintained universal appeal on this issue.

b. Tariff

(1) The Tariff of 1828 - 40% [known in SC as the "Tariff of Abominations", prompting Calhoun's (anonymously authored) South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828)]

(2) Jackson's position? A vigorous states' righter on Indian issue, but Jackson not an ideologue, so uncertainty remained until Jefferson Day Dinner, 1830

(3) The Tariff of 1832 - Still 40%!

(a) SC nullified it; Calhoun quit as VP

(b) Jackson pushed through Force Act, prepared invasion of SC

(4) Clay's Compromise Tariff of 1833; maintained 40% rate, but would gradually decrease to 25% by 1842

c. National bank

(1) Clay's bill to extend charter of 2nd B. U. S., 1836-56

(2) Jackson vetoed it, and campaign was on!

2. The Campaign

a. Emergence of the 2nd American Party System

(1) Jackson's Democratic-Republicans (2) Clay's National Republicans

b. First 3rd party participation (Anti-Masons)

c. First use of national nominating conventions

3. Outcome: despite Clay's (and Bank President Nicholas Biddle's) belief that Americans approved of Bank, that was before they read Jackson's veto message (circulated by Clay!)

a. Popular vote b. Electoral vote

Clay

Jackson

F. Jackson's Second Term

1. Jackson's War on the Bank

a. Reasons for his assault

(1) Jackson's vendetta style

(2) Popularity of issue in campaign

(3) Desire to deliver on great expectations

b. Jackson's actions against Bank

(1) Removal of two Treasury Secretaries

(2) Federal funds redistributed to state "pet" banks

c. Results of Jackson's attack

(1) Censure of Jackson by Congress

(2) The Panic of 1837

(3) Van Buren (elected in 1836 on what was left of Jackson's popularity) lost in 1840

2. Deeper significance of Bank War may be found in the apparent contradiction between ...

a. Jackson's rhetoric - He called the 2nd B.U.S. a "Monster" suggesting an antipathy to the whole idea of commercialization, perhaps expressing nostalgia for a simpler agrarian past, to which Americans responded enthusiastically ... and ...

b. Jackson's actions - State "pet" banks indulged in the same kind of speculation that Jackson seemed to be condemning. Americans also reacted favorably to what they saw as attempt to move credit (opportunity) closer to them (even though pet banks were run by elitists, too).

Having paid homage to the past through Jackson's attack on the Bank, Americans were freed from guilt about their materialism, able to indulge in a search without restraint for wealth. So the combination of Jackson's rhetoric and actions fueled ordinary Americans' economic expectations, which persisted even if not fulfilled in that era.

VI. Sectionalism

A. The East - Reasons for political recovery after the emergence of a South-West alliance and the death of the Federalist Party

1. The Industrial Revolution

a. Beginning when?

b. Effects

(1) Quantitative

(2) Qualitative

(Though the new, manufactured wealth created by industrialization was not equitably distributed, it enabled the region to buy its way back into national political influence)

2. Transportation Revolution, 1780-1860

a. Phases

(1) Turnpikes, 1780-1820

(2) "Canal Age", 1820-40

(3) Steamboats, 1830-1850

(4) Railroads, 1850-

b. Sectional implications - The first interregional rail lines connected the East and West in the 1850s, breaking the South-West alliance forged by the Mississippi-Ohio River system, isolating the South

B. The South

1. Reasons for its new, aggressive defense for slavery

a. Economics - Whitney's cotton gin gave slavery a new lease on life

b. Assaults on the southern system

(1) External assault - William Lloyd Garrison's call for "immediate abolition", in contrast to earlier advocacy of "gradualism"

(2) Internal assault, by slaves

(a) Denmark Vesey rebellion - 1821

Moral: "Keep Blacks Enslaved"

(b) Nat Turner rebellion - 1831

Moral: "Keep Blacks in Chains"

2. Reactions of white southerners to these assaults

a. State laws inhibiting slaves from being freed or taught skills

b. The "gag rule", banning discussion of slavery in Congress, and prohibition of abolitionist materials from mails

c. Region turned into an armed camp (slave patrols)

d. Creation of the "Myth of the Old South"

(1) Typical white: a kindly master/mistress of the plantation, supported in their pursuit of philosophical inquiry and the perfection of social graces by ...

(2) A profitable and rational plantation economy, based on the willing labor of ...

(3) The typical black: a "natural slave", whose inferiority and acceptance of his/her situation was "proven" by historian U. B. Phillips, citing blacks' ...

(a) Paucity of revolts, escapes

(b) Lack of initiative

(d) Lack of a cultural identity

3. The Old South

a. The typical white

(1) Percentage of whites owning slaves in 1860?

(2) Number of slaves in the median slaveholding?

b. The plantation economy

(1) Was it profitable?

(2) Was it rational?

c. The typical black: a "natural slave"?

(1) Obstacles to successful revolts, escapes

(2) Reasons for lack of initiative

(3) Strength of black families

(4) Persistence of black culture

C. Persistent American nationalism in the 1840

1. Reasons for it

a. Complementary economies

b. Technological innovations

c. Shared racism, nativism

d. Emergence of a national cultural identity

e. Reformism

(1) Sources of reform spirit

(a) Second Great Awakening

(b) Middle class status anxieties

(2) Reform causes

(a) Issues

(b) Utopian communism

f. The West (see D. below)

2. Price of it: was the persistent nationalism of the 1840s a positive or a negative force?

D. The West

1. The course of empire

2. The West's role in Presidential politics

3. The Election of 1844: proof of West's unifying capacity

a. Historians' theories about Polk's victory

(1) "54 40' or Fight!" - Polk's pledge to acquire Oregon won him the North's support

(2) Polk's pledge to annex Texas won him the South's support (Click here for analysis of the instructor’s video compilation “Remember the Alamo!”)

(3) (1) and (2)

(4) Polk won because of the North's desire for Oregon and Texas, and the South's desire for Texas and Oregon: "Manifest Destiny"

b. Results of Polk's victory

(1) Texas annexed, 1845

(2) Oregon acquired by compromise, 1846

(3) California-Southwest acquired through war with Mexico, 1846-47

4. Mexican War

a. Rationalizations

b. Results

(1) Completion of the continent

(2) Determination of the Presidential succession

(3) Creation of a martial atmosphere at mid- century

5. The West as a battleground

a. The 1850 crisis

b. Compromise of 1850 provisions

(1) California admitted as a free state, breaking balance between free and slave states

(2) Fugitive Slave Act required Northerners assist in the capture and return to slavery of runaway Southern slaves

(3) Slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C.

c. Legacy of the 1850 crisis

E. The 1850s

1. Events (partial list)

a. Wilmot Proviso

b. The Compromise of 1850

c. Emergence of the popular soveignty issue

d. Publication of H. B. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin

e. Kansas-Nebraska Act and "Bleeding Kansas"

f. "Pottawatomie Massacre"

g. Preston Brooks-Charles Sumner affair

h. Emergence of all-Northern Republican Party

i. The Dred Scott decision

j. Lincoln-Douglas debates

k. John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry

l. The Election of 1860

m. Secession and Fort Sumner

2. Causes of the Civil War

a. Egocentric sectionalism

(1) Southerners blamed northern "Black Republicans"

(2) Northerners blamed the southern "Slave Power"

b. A conflict over the nature of the Union

(1) States' rights

(2) Federal supremacy

c. A breakdown in the democratic process

(1) Majority rule

(2) Minority rights

d. An avoidable war was caused by ...

(1) Blundering politicians

(a) Southerners - were their fears irrational?

(b) Northerners - should they have realized that the issue of the extension of slavery into the western territiories was meaningless?

(2) Irresponsible agitators

(a) Did the extremism of southern "Fireeaters" make compromise impossible?

(b) Did northern abolitionists, with their appeals to a law higher than the Constitution, force the South to secede? For an overview of the John Brown video screened in class, click here.

e. An inevitable war was caused by ...

(1) Economics

(2) A conflict of cultures

(3) Slavery

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