WHITE MAN’S OPPORTUNITY WHITE MAN’S DEMOCRACY

Jacksonian Democracy

Bingham “County Election”

Essential Questions:

Why is this called the era of the common man? Evaluate – to what degree is this accurate?

What factors cause the 2APPS to emerge?

What are the key/defining issues of the period?

Characteristics

Representative democracy emergesEquality of opportunity Opportunity created by the market

economyAnti-elitist (Anti-Masonic Party) Political equality masked social and

economic inequalities (Workingman’s Party)

Paradoxical Freedom

Second American Political Party System

Van Buren – political parties protect from abuse of power; permanent, balanced, competing

Whigs – Hamiltonian; active government – promotes economic development (Clay, Webster)

Democrats – limited government – protect white man’s opportunity (Van Buren, Calhoun, Jackson)

Key Issues

Economic BUS Tariffs Land policies

Role of federal government Power activism

Key PersonalitiesVan Buren Jackson

Key PersonalitiesClay Webster

Key PersonalitiesCalhoun John Quincy

Adams

Underlying Sectional Issues

Tariff - protectiveLand policies – price and accessFFII Extension of slavery BUS – less sectional, issues of credit

regulation, hard/soft money

Indicators of DemocracyUniversal white manhood suffrage

*****Majoritarianism – belief in majority

ruleMore officials elected Nominating conventions Party organization – all levels – source

of identity Active campaigning Increased votingVoting to influence policy decisions

form > substanceBalance representation – frontier

gainsTHE WILL OF THE PEOPLE

Jackson “prototype” of modern activist

president President embodies will of the

peopleUse of veto power President as policy maker Encourages laissez faire economics Paradox – strengthens both strong

union and states rights Use of kitchen cabinet, spoils

system, rotation

Quelling a Riot in the Kitchen Cabinet

Political Process

Election of 1824 Corrupt Bargain JQA – nationalist – problems

Election of 1828 White male opportunity/democracy

Peggy O’Neale Eaton Affair Battle for shaping of Jackson Van Buren v Calhoun

Election of 1824

Election of 1828

Issues of the Jacksonian EraFFII

Maysville Road – Clay & Webster Political “trap” for AJ (Miep! Miep!)

Issues: Western Expansion

Indian Removal Act Ross

Johnson v McIntosh (1823) Worcester v GA (1832) & Cherokee

Nation v GA Trail of Tears 1835-1836

1830-38 Five Civilized Tribes expelled

Lindneux The Trail of Tears

Issues: Nullification

SC Exposition and Protest (1828) Fears – slave revolts (Turner & Vesey) Economic depression

States Rights Philosophy – interposition & nullification States have the right of judicial review

Concurrent Majority Special conventions – power of one state

Issues: Western Expansion

Land policy – graduation & pre-emption

Foot Proposal Webster-Hayne Debate 1830

Real issue – nature of the union Webster – permanent union of people Hayne – divisible union of states –

implications of secession

Webster - Hayne Debate

The PositionsHayne“The very life of our

system is the independence of the states…I am opposed to the unnecessary extension of the power of the union over the states.”

Webster“The union is

essential to the prosperity and safety of the states.” Does Hayne think the union is only a temporary thing to be sundered when it thwarts local concerns?

Hayne Webster

“Is the South always to be a minority upon whom Congress forces its will? If so the seeds of dissolution are already sown and our children will reap bitter fruit.” Ex. Tariff

“The great question is the right to decide constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the laws. If each state can accept or reject as it pleased, the result is chaos and the Union will fall apart like a rope of sand.”

Webster

“It is sir, the people’s constitution, the people’s government; made by the people and answerable to the people. If each state demands sovereignty, the nation would be rent with civil feuds or drenched with blood. Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”

Issues: Tariff Crisis 1833

SC nullified Tariffs of 1828 & 1832AJ Response

Force Act Nullification = treason

Compromise tariff averts crisis Webster – nullification not constitutional,

secession = revolutionary right

Calhoun – build southern solidarity

Issues: Bank War

Early Recharter – constitutional, political & economic issues

Clay/Webster – political issue (Miep!)AJ Veto Message

Rejects McCulloch V MD1832 election = referendum on BUS

Mandate to destroy BUS

Biddle and the Bank

Provided economic stabilitySecond BUS well run - balanced

Jackson’s Veto Message

“It is be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to this selfish purposes. ….There are no necessary evils in government. It’s evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection –shower its favor alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles. “

Bank War 1833

AJ – “pet banks” - Taney Censure by Senate – US v JacksonBiddle fights back – folds

Wide open credit and speculationSpecie Circular 1836----Depression

1837 Hard specie crisis

Van Buren 1836; Independent Treasury

Van Buren and economic crisis

Jackson Court

Taney – reflects Jacksonian Democracy

Contrast w/ Marshall Court Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge

1837

King Andrew

Whig depiction

2APPS – Election 1840

Whigs – MC, Native born, creditors, Planters, Protestant – commercial economy

Democrats – more isolated small farmer, immigrants & ethnic groups, agrarian

Third Parties – raise issues/split votesElection of 1840 “Hard cider & Log

Cabin”

Election Poster -1840

Election of 1840

The Excluded

Free African Americans - discrimination, segregation, job competition, limited opportunity – communities and self help

Slaves, Native People, Women, Asians, often Irish (minstrel show)

Anxiety reinforced racism

William Sidney Mount –The Power of Music