the expanding republic. networks of roads, canals, steamboats, and railroads lowered the cost of...
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The Expanding Republic
1815-1840
Networks of roads, canals, steamboats, and railroads
lowered the cost of travelMoved goods to wider marketsFacilitated the flow of political information
through newspapers and US mail
Improvements in Transportation
Steamboat
Erie Canal
Steamboat explosion
Young women employees were cheaper than menYoung women flocked to factory towns from
farms, hoping to earn money and to have more freedom
Shoemaker also a lot of women, shoebinders (stitching the top parts of the shoe)
By the 1840s, the young women were replaced by immigrant families
Factories
Lowell, Massachusetts1821 a group of
Boston entrepreneurs founded Lowell, where all aspects of cloth production—combing, shrinking, spinning, weaving, and dyeing were centralized
Lowell MillsBy 1830, eight
mills in Lowell employed more than 5,000 young women who lived in closely supervised company owned boardinghouses.
From 1814 to 1840 a tremendous explosion in state-chartered banks
Second Bank of the United States, with eighteen branches, opened in 1816 with a 20-year charter (the first bank of US charter had expired in 1811)
Banks enlarged the money supply by making loans to manufacturers; they had a lot of power over economy by deciding who got loans
Banking
Commercial law profession expanded as the banks did
Lawyers wrote new state laws of incorporation for businesses, protecting individuals from being liable for corporate debts
Rewrote laws of eminent domain, empowering states to buy land for roads and canals
Lawyers
Some state banks had suspended specie payments (the exchange of gold or silver for banknotes)
1818 the Bank of the US called its loans, requiring the state banks to call their loans, contracting the economy.
Coupled with a financial crisis in Europe in 1819, the result was the “panic of 1819”
Financial Panic of 1819
The first presidential election in which popular votes determined the outcome; in 22 out of 24 states, voters chose the electors in the electoral college, not the state legislatures
Election of 1828
New campaign stylesState level candidates gave speeches, appeared at
picnicsPartisan newspapers publicized personalities like
never beforeFirst time politicians identified themselves as “Jackson
men” or “Adams men” and party lines were solidified by the mid 1830s into Whig or Democrat
1828 first election where character issues of the candidates was importantAdams was vilified as elitist, a monarchist, a bookish
academicJackson was exposed for his notorious violent temper
Political Campaigns
Emergence of Two PartiesWhigs (like Adams) a moralistic, top-down party ready to make major decisions to promote economic growth
Democrats (like Jackson) a contentious, energetic party ready to embrace individualism
President JacksonHe appointed only
loyalists, unlike predecessors who tried to dampen conflict by appointing people of different points of view
Jackson Victory and Calhoun as VP
Jackson won a huge victory, and he chose John C. Calhoun as his VP; Calhoun had been VP with Adams but had broken with his policies
“to the victor belong the spoils”He replaced many competent people with party loyalists, initiating the “spoils system”
Spoils System
He exercised veto power over CongressVetoed a federal highway bill in
Maysville Kentucky, Henry Clay’s home state
Jackson believed federal tax dollars should not be spent on local projects, but general projects
He used the veto 12 times; all previous presidents together up to that time used it 9 times
Veto Power
Trail of Tears A 1,200 mile journey west under armed guard25% died, 1838-39
The Indian Removal Act of 1830Congress
appropriated $500,000 to relocate eastern tribes west of the Mississippi
Indian policyJackson explained that the removal was
the only way to “save the Indians.”The Indians that resisted were attacked
by militias and killedThe Creeks, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and
Cherokee tribes in the South refused to relocate and a second Seminole War broke out in Florida.
1831. Cherokee leaders asked the Supreme Court to stop the State of Georgia from seizing their property. The Court sided with Georgia saying they were not citizens and therefore had no right to sue;
a year later they brought suit again, this time in the name of a white supporter. In Worcester v. Georgia (1832) the Supreme Court upheld the territorial sovereignty of the Cherokee people
Jackson was so angry he ignored the Court saying “If they now refuse to accept the liberal terms offered, they can only be liable for whatever evils and difficulties may arise. I feel conscious of having done my duty to my red children.”
Legal Challenges to Indian Policy
1828 Congress passed revised tariff known as the Tariff of Abominations, a bundle of conflicting duties as high as 50% and contained provisions that pleased and angered every economic and sectional interest
Economic Policy
South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun advanced a doctrine of nullification, arguing that states had the right to abolish Congress’ acts in cases when Congress overstepped its powers.
Nullification
Jackson became president in 1829, and shut out his VP Calhoun from access and power
Calhoun resigned in 1832, and was elected to the US Senate
President shuts out VP
South Carolina declared federal tariffs to be null and void in 1833
Jackson sent armed ships to Charleston’s harbor and threatened to invade the state; he pushed through Congress the Force Bill, defining South Carolina stance as treason and authorizing military to collect federal tariffs
Federal Government Vs. States’ Rights
Congress passed a revised bill more acceptable to the South and South Carolina withdrew its nullification; it did however nullify the Force Bill.
Federal power had prevailed over a dangerous assertion of states’ rights but the question was far from settled and slavery threatened to emerge as a national political issue.
Federal Government prevails
Abolition
Grimke’s
Great Awakening
William Henry Harrison