Sectionalism

Sectionalism

Supporting the issues of your region of the

nation as being more important than the

issues of the nation as a whole

North

South

West

National Bank

Recharter was denied in 1811

Economic panic during War of 1812

New Second Bank chartered in 1816

“easy credit” was a major issue

Land Policy

1800…320 acres @ $2 per acre

1804…160 acres @ 50¢ per acre

West wants cheap land

North/South want to convert land into $$$

– North…cheap land sucks up cheap labor

– South…fears agricultural competition

Tariff

Protective Tariff v. Revenue Tariff

War of 1812 impacts rate of Tariff

North (esp. New England) supports PT

South initially supports, then changes

West is split on supporting

Tariff of Abominations (1828)

– Nullification

Nullification

Idea that individual states could nullify, or

cancel, national legislation in their borders

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

South Carolina Exposition & Protest

– Tariff of Abominations

– Force Bill

Internal Improvements

To what extent should national government

help finance construction of canals,

turnpikes, highways, and railroads

National Road

Jackson vetoes Maysville Road project

Slavery

Prohibited in Northwest Territory

Slave trade outlawed in 1808

Could upset equal balance in Senate

Compromise of 1820

Fugitive Slave Law

This will become the MOST heated

example of Sectionalism…WAR

The BIG THREE

Daniel Webster…North

John C. Calhoun…South

Henry Clay…West

The compromises created by these three

Senators helped to delay the coming of the

Civil War as long as possible.

Characteristics of North’s

Economy

More banking, shipping, insurance,

Sm and Lg business ownership –creating

middle, or bourgeois, class

Some agriculture- both commercial and

subsistence farming

Availability of wage laborers

Characteristics of South’s

Economy Dependent on the plantation system, the

center of economic, political, cultural, and

social life in the South

Slave labor, the dominant labor force

Majority of white population engaged in

subsistence farming

Yeoman farmers, who owned small or med

commercial farms, a sm. portion of pop.

Sm urban bourgeois (middle) class

Characteristics of West’s

Economy

Primarily agricultural

Shifting from subsistence farming to

commercial farming.

Produced more foodstuffs, such as corn

and wheat, than other regions.

By 1850s the North and West were

economically joined.

Political Objectives of North

Tariff to protect the N’s growing industries.

Federal aid in the development of

infrastructure-roads, bridges, canals,

railroads.

A loose immigration policy (provide cheap

labor)

Availability of free of cheap land in the West

(settlement & investment opportunities).

The containment of slavery.

Political Objectives of South

Low tariffs

Expansion of slavery for political,

economic, and ideological reasons

Opposition to a cheap public land system-

would force the planter-slaveholder to

compete politically, economically, and

ideologically with the independent farmer in

the West.

“Cotton is King!”

Important global commodity

Most powerful cotton producers were

planter-slaveholders. (fraction of

population)

Planters made all of the political and

economic decisions.

Tensions Over Political Theories

The people, no the

states, created the

Union.

The federal gov’t is

supreme.

Thus, federal laws

& actions take

precence over state

laws and actions.

North / Contract Theory

Examples of:

Various decisions

made by the

Marshall Court

John Locke’s

Second Treatise

of Government

Tensions Over Political Theories States, not the people,

created the national

gov’t.

Laws of states are

supreme when in

conflict with the fed.

gov’t.

States can declare fed.

laws null & void

Extreme conclusion is

succession.

South / Compact Theory

Examples of:

Virginia &

Kentucky

Resolutions

Hartford

Convention

Ordinance of

Nullification