Chapter Eleven

The Growth of Democracy, 1824—1840

Part One

Introduction

Focus Questions

What was the role of Andrew Jackson’s presidency in affirming and solidifying the new democratic politics?What part did the transportation revolution play in unifying the nation?How was the basic two-party pattern of American political democracy established?How did writers and artists and their audiences create a distinctive American cultural identity?

Part Two

Martin Van Buren Forges a New Kind of Political

Community

Martin Van Buren Forges a New Kind of Political Community

Martin Van Buren Forges a New Kind of Political Community

Son of a tavern keeper

Van Buren lacked

aristocratic connections

Van Buren built strong party

Part ThreeThe New Democratic

Politics in North America

Continental Struggles over Popular Rights

In 1821, Mexican independence. Santa Anna strongest early president

In Haiti, independence destroyed the sugar industry.

British Caribbean islands, numerous revolts lead to abolition

Upper and Lower Canada union

The Expansion and Limits of Suffrage

United States more than doubled between 1800 and 1830

Trans-Appalachian population grew tenfold.

MAP 11.1 Population Trends: Westward Expansion, 1830

Westward population movement, a trickle in 1800, had become a flood by 1830. Between 1800 and 1830, the

U.S. white and African American population more than doubled

(from 5.3 million to 12.9 million), but the trans-Appalachian

population grew tenfold (from 370,000 to 3.7 million). By

1830, more than a third of the nation’s inhabitants lived west of the original thirteen states.

The Expansion and Limits of Suffrage

1800, only white, male, property owners could vote in most states.

As western states entered Union, suffrage expanded.

1820 most older states dropped property qualifications.

By 1840, 90 % of adult white males could vote.

Women and African Americans were barred from voting.

MAP 11.2a The Growth of Universal White Male Suffrage Kentucky was the first western state to enact white male suffrage without tax or property qualifications. Other western states followed, and

by 1820, most of the older states had dropped their suffrage restrictions as well. By 1840, more than 90 percent of the nation’s white males could vote. But although voting was democratized for

white men, restrictions on free African American male voters grew tighter, and women were excluded completely.

MAP 11.2b The Growth of Universal White Male Suffrage

FIGURE 11.1 Race Exclusions for Suffrage: 1790–1855 This graph shows clearly that as more states entered the Union, laws excluding African American men from voting increased.

SOURCE:Alexander Keyssar,The Right to Vote (New York:Basic Books,2000)p.56.

The Election of 18241824 election marked end to Era of Good Feelings

Four candidates ran for the presidency.

Jackson won popular vote.

John Quincy Adams won due to so-called “corrupt bargain.”

Adams’s initiatives blocked by Congress.

MAP 11.3 The Election of 1824 The presidential vote of 1824 was clearly sectional. John

Quincy Adams carried his native New England and little else,

Henry Clay carried only his own state of Kentucky and two

adjoining states, and Crawford’s appeal was limited to Virginia

and Georgia. Only Andrew Jackson moved beyond the regional support of the Old

Southwest to wider appeal and the greatest number of electoral

votes. Because no candidate had a majority, however, the election

was thrown into the House of Representatives, which chose

Adams.

The New Popular Democratic Culture

More popular form of politics was emerging.

Increased political participation and helped elect Jackson president

Mass campaigning increases participation.

The New Popular Democratic Culture: The Print Revolution

The print revolution most evident newspaper growth.Politics democratized by political pageantry. Tightly-organized, broad-based political groups emerged. Party loyalty stressed.

FIGURE 11.2 The Burgeoning of Newspapers Newspapers have a long history in the United States. Even before the American Revolution, the colonies boasted 37 newspapers

(see Chapter 6), and within little more than a decade, that number had nearly tripled. Toward the end of the century, however, the number of newspapers expanded rapidly, by 1835

numbering more than 30 times that of 1775.

The Election of 1828

Jackson triumphed in 1828

Contest portrayed as struggle between democracy and aristocracy.

His victory showed the strength of new parties.

MAP 11.4 The Election of 1828 Andrew Jackson’s victory in 1828 was the first success of the new national party system. The coalition of state parties that elected him was national, not

regional. Although his support was strongest in the South and West, his ability to carry Pennsylvania and parts of New York demonstrated his national appeal.

FIGURE 11.3 Pre–Civil War Voter Turnout The turnout of voters in presidential elections more than doubled from 1824 to 1828, the year Andrew Jackson was first elected.Turnout

surged to 80 percent in 1840, the year the Whigs triumphed.The extension of suffrage to all white men, and heated competition between two political parties with nationwide

membership, turned presidential election campaigns into events with great popular appeal.

Part Four

The Jackson Presidency

A Popular Figure

Jackson symbolized the frontier.

Unruly well-wishers led to “King Mob” fears

A Strong Executive

Jackson’s Democrats created a national coalition. Jackson was strong executive; consulted “Kitchen Cabinet”. Jackson strengthened presidency by using veto. Most famous veto was defeat for rival Henry Clay.

The Nation’s Leader versus Sectional Spokesmen

Regional spokespeople included:Daniel Webster for the East;

John C. Calhoun for the South; and

Henry Clay for the West.

Jackson had national appeal.

The Nullification Crisis

Constitutional ambiguity.

Sectional interests.

States’ rights issue caused political controversies.

The Nullification Crisis

The 1828 “Tariff of Abominations”.

Calhoun defended nullification.

South Carolina nullified the 1833 tariff.

Jackson considered South Carolina’s treasonous; Force Bill passed. Henry Clay engineered compromise tariff.

Part Five

Changing the Course of Government

Indian RemovalJackson embraced Indian cession of their lands and removal.

The five civilized southern tribes most affected. Jackson pressed for Cherokee removal.

Indian RemovalJackson defied the Supreme Court.

The Cherokee removal called “Trail of Tears.”

Removal Act of 1830 was strongly opposed by northerners.

MAP 11.5 Southern Indian Cessions and Removals, 1830s Pressure on the five major southern Indian peoples—the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles—that began during the War of

1812, culminated with their removal in the 1830s. Some groups from every tribe ceded their southern homelands peacefully and moved to the newly established Indian Territory west of Arkansas and

Missouri. Some, like the Seminoles, resisted by force. Others, like the Cherokees, resisted in the courts, but finally lost when President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce a Supreme Court decision in their

favor. The Cherokees, the last to move, were forcibly removed by the U.S. Army along the “Trail of Tears” in 1838.

Internal Improvements

1850: rivers, canals, road, and railroads connected nation.

The transportation revolution.

States provided more funding for infrastructure.

Legal Support for Private Enterprise

Supreme Court fostered economic growth: asserting federal power over interstate commerce; and encouraging economic competition by denying monopolies.

State laws granted charters of incorporation.

The Bank WarSecond Bank of the United States (1816) quasi-private institution. The Second Bank acted as currency stabilizer by:

encouraging the growth of strong and stable financial interest; and curbing less stable and irresponsible ones.

Eastern merchants liked bank. Western farmers and speculators feared Bank.Jackson vetoed the re-chartering bill.

In this political cartoon, Jackson destroys the Second Bank of the United States by withdrawing government deposits. As the Bank crashes, it crushes the director Nicholas Biddle (depicted as the Devil), wealthy investors (with moneybags) and the newspaper

editors (surrounded by paper) who opposed Jackson on this issue. SOURCE:Library of Congress.

Jackson's Reelection in 1832

1832 Jackson soundly defeated Clay.

Jackson put federal money in “pet” banks.

Jackson claimed he could ignore Congressional.

Whigs, Van Buren, and the Election of 1836

The Bank called in commercial loans, causing a recession. Jackson’s opponents founded an opposition party—the Whigs. The new party lost 1836 election to Martin Van Buren.

The Panic of 1837

Bank death led to Panic of 1837.

Depression gave Whigs opportunity.

Part Six

The Second American Party System

Whigs and Democrats

Democrats: Organized to elect JacksonParty spoke for Jeffersonian democracy, Power base lay in rural South, West, northern urban workers

Whigs and Democrats

Whigs:Organized in opposition to JacksonHeirs to Federalism, Power base lay in the North and Old Northwest

The Campaign of 1840

1840 Whigs portrayed Harrison as humble man.

The Whigs won a sweeping electoral victory.

MAP 11.6 The Election of 1840 The Whigs triumphed in the

election of 1840 by beating the Democrats at their own game.

Whigs could expect to do well in the commercializing areas of New England and the Old Northwest,

but their adopted strategy of popular campaigning worked well in the largely rural South and West as well, contributing to Harrison’s

victory.The Whigs’ choice of JohnTyler as vice presidential candidate, another strategy

designed to appeal to southern voters, backfired when Harrison

died and Tyler, who did not share Whig principles, became

America’s first vice president to succeed to the presidency.

The Whig Victory Turns to Loss:The Tyler Presidency

The Whig triumph was short-lived.

Tyler vetoed a series of bills.

The Whigs were unable to bridge the gap between North and South.

Part Seven

American Arts and Letters

Popular Cultures and the Spread of the Written Word

Communications revolution.

Newspapers and almanacs fostered popular culture.

Creating a National American Culture

An intellectual movement.

Irving, Cooper, and Emerson created distinctly American culture.

Artists and Builders

Artists drew American landscape and lifestyles.

Neoclassical remained the architectural style.

Balloon frame construction helped housing grow.

Asher Durand, a member of the Hudson River School of landscape

painting, produced this work, Kindred Spirits, in 1849, as a tribute

to Thomas Cole, the school’s leader. Cole is one of the figures depicted standing in a romantic

wilderness. SOURCE:Courtesy of The New York Public Library.

This well-known painting by George Caleb Bingham, Stump Speaking, shows a group of men (and boys, and dogs) of all social classes brought together by their common interest in politics.

SOURCE:George Caleb Bingham (American 1811 –79),Stump Speaking ,1853 –54 Oil on canvas,42 1 /2 x 58 in.The Saint Louis Art Museum,gift of Bank of America.Photo © The Saint Louis Art Museum..

A Regular Row in the Backwoods. The 1841 issue of the Crockett Almanac, named after the Tennessee backwoodsman made famous by his self-serving tall tales, portrayed a rough rural

“sport.” Inexpensive comic almanacs combined illustrated jokes on topical subjects with astrological and weather predictions. SOURCE:Crockett Almanac Library of Congress.

The Boston Athenaeum was one of Boston’s leading cultural institutions. The library, shown in this engraving, was probably the finest in the country in the early nineteenth century. SOURCE:Library of

the Athenaeum.Wood engraving,1855.Collection of the Boston Athenaeum.

Nullification Crisis

State’s rights versus Federal laws

Indian Removal Act

Act passed by Congress to remove 5 Southeastern tribes.

Trail of Tears

Forced removal of Cherokee

Bank War

Jackson’s battle with the Second Bank of the US

Specie Circular

Jackson rule that only gold or silver could be used in land sales.

How did suffrage expand between 1800 and 1840?

Voting eligibility increased from white male property owners to white males.

What steps did Andrew Jackson take to strengthen the executive branch of the federal government?

Veto, veto, veto, spoils system, kitchen cabinet.

What led to the Transportation Revolution?

Westward expansion

Who were Andrew Jackson’s most important opponents and what did they support?

Clay, Calhoun, Webster; transportation, nationalist, 2nd bank, tariff, strong federal govt.

What were the main issues of the campaign of 1840? 

Whigs versus Democrats; rural small government proponents versus pro strong central government and pro BUS

What role did newspapers and pamphlets play in American pop culture in the first half of the 19th century?

 Scandal, headlines, up-to-date news due to…..