The Rise of a Mass Democracy

I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824

a. Candidates For the Presidency In 1824

i. John Quincy Adams (MA)

ii. Henry Clay (KY)

iii. William Crawford (GA)

iv. Andrew Jackson (TN)

1. War hero

2. Had the strongest personal appeal, especially in the West

3. Campaigned against the forces of corruption and privilege in government

v. All four professed to be “Republicans” – political parties were fuzzy at this point in history

b. Election Results

i. Jackson polled almost as many popular votes as his next two rivals combined, but failed to win a majority of the electoral vote

ii. As a result, the House of Representatives votes for the president (top three candidates)

iii. Clay was omitted, but he was Speaker of the House. As a result, he was in the position to throw the election

1. Crawford had a stroke

2. Jackson was hated by Clay, who challenged him to his popularity in the West and hated Jackson’s display of military strength in FL

3. The only candidate left was Adams, who supported Jackson in FL. Clay assured him of his support

iv. Thanks to Clay’s behind-the-scenes influence, Adams was elected president

v. A few days later, Adams announced that Henry Clay would be the new secretary of state. This office carries the most prestige in the cabinet (3 of the last 4 became president)

vi. According to Jackson’s supporters, Adams had bribed Clay with the position

c. Reaction of Americans

i. Many people thought it was a “corrupt bargain”

ii. Jackson condemned Clay as the “Judas of the West”

d. Reality of What Happened

i. No evidence has been found to prove that Adams and Clay entered into a formal bargain

ii. Clay was a natural choice for secretary of state

iii. Even if a bargain had been struck, it was not necessarily corrupt; deals of this nature had long been happening

II. President John Quincy Adams

a. Character/Looks

i. Short, thick, and bald

ii. Went swimming naked in the Potomac

iii. Irritable, sarcastic, and tactless, but honest

iv. Had a great knowledge of foreign affairs from his being secretary of state

v. After his presidency, he served in the House or Representatives, where he argued against slavery and the removal of Native Americans

b. Bad Start

i. Were charges of “bargain” and “corruption”

ii. Fewer than 1/3 of the voters had voted for him

iii. Adams refused to oust efficient officeholders in order to create vacancies for his supporters (If the president would not reward party workers with political gains, why should they labor to keep him in office?)

c. From Nationalism to Sectionalism & States’ rights

i. The nation was turning away from the nationalistic views they had after the Treaty of Ghent and turning to States’ rights and sectionalism

ii. Adams, however, was nationalistic:

1. The construction of roads and canals (thought it was a State/local job – what’s next, slavery?)

2. A national university (thought it would be a heavy financial burden and the government would have to continue the hated tariffs)

3. Astronomical observatory (thought it was a waste of money)

4. Wanted to curb speculation (westerners wanted wide-open expansion)

iii. Public reaction to these proposals was unfavorable

iv. The Cherokee Indians were being ousted in GA. The federal gov’t tried to deal with the Cherokee Indian problem fairly. The GA governor threatened to deal with them forcefully and this nullified the federal government’s intervention

III. Andrew Jackson for President in 1828

a. Two Republican Camps

i. National Republicans – Adams

ii. Democratic-Republicans – Jackson

b. Campaigning

i. Democratic-Republicans –

1. Presented Jackson as:

a. War hero

b. Champion of the common man

c. Was a frontier farmer (actually a wealthy planter; born in log cabin, but now lived in luxury and had many slaves)

d. Would reform the corruption in office

2. Presented Adams as:

a. Clay bargain was unethical

b. Corrupt

c. Dishonest (morals were actually too elevated for the job)

c. Mudslinging

i. Jackson –

1. Mother was a prostitute

2. Wife was an adulteress

3. Recounted his duels, brawls, and hanging of six mutinous militiamen

ii. Adams –

1. Purchased a billiard table and set of chess – gambling furniture for the presidential palace

2. Made large sums of money in federal salaries (although they were well-earned)

3. Served as a pimp for the Russian tsar by supplying him with a servant girl

d. Election of 1828

i. Electorate split on sectional lines

1. Jackson – won west and south

2. Adams – won north and east

ii. Jackson won 178-83

IV. President Andrew Jackson

a. Characteristics

i. Tall, lean, gray hair

ii. Was a rags to riches story

iii. Orphaned early in childhood – had independent, mischievous nature as a result

iv. Had bouts with dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis, lead poisoning from two bullets in his body

v. More interested in cockfighting and brawling than in reading and spelling

vi. Had a violent temper and was involved in many duels

vii. Had same prejudices as westerners, but was a frontier aristocrat and owned many slaves

viii. Nicknamed “old Hickory”

ix. White House opened to the masses for the first time

x. Supporters were eager to get well-paying jobs for themselves

b. Firsts

i. First president from the West

ii. First president to be nominated at a formal party convention

iii. Second without a college education (Washington was the first)

V. The Spoils System

a. The Democrats & the Spoils System

i. The spoils system – rewarding political supporters with public office – was introduced into the federal government on a large scale

ii. The basic idea was old, but Jackson’s extensive use made it popular

b. Advantages to the Spoils System

i. Defended on democratic grounds:

1. Better to bring in new blood – each generation deserved a change to be in public office to bring in new energy and ideas

2. People being brought in were commoners, who would get a chance to run their government

3. No party overturn had occurred since the defeat of the Federalists in 1800, and even that had not caused people to leave office

ii. Strengthened the party system – cemented loyalty to the party

c. Disadvantages to the Spoils System

i. Rewarded supporters who might not be qualified

ii. Illiterates, incompetents, and crooks were given positions of public trust

iii. Some stole funds from the government

iv. The Pendleton Act in 1883 would do away with the Spoils System and replace office-holding it with merit

VI. The Tricky “Tariff on Abominations”

a. Tariffs

i. Tariffs protected American industry against competition from European goods, but:

1. They also drove up prices for all Americans

2. Invited retaliatory tariffs on American agricultural exports abroad

ii. New England and the middle colonies supported the tariff to protect their industry

b. Tariff of 1828

i. Jackson promoted a high-tariff bill, expecting it to be defeated

ii. This would give prove that people didn’t like the tariff to Adams and his supporters

iii. However, the tariff passed in 1828

c. Southerners Dislike the Tariffs

i. Had little industry of their own. As a result, they were heavy consumers of manufactured goods, so they didn’t like the tariff. Especially felt the rates were too high. Several southern States adopted formal protects and lowered their flags to half-staff

ii. Felt the tariff discriminated against the South and protected the North

d. Other Southern Outcries

i. Slavery – feared possible federal interference with it

1. Missouri Compromise

2. Aborted slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822

3. British West Indies were feeling the mounting pressure of British abolitionists in the London government

ii. The tariff would be the issue that would allow the South to take a strong stand on States’ rights

e. The South Carolina Exposition

i. Pamphlet secretly written by John C. Calhoun (vice-president)

ii. Denounced the tariff as unjust and unconstitutional

iii. He bluntly and explicitly proposed that the States should nullify the tariff – they should declare it null and void within their borders ----- this suggestion of nullification would be used by other States and would lead to the Civil War

iv. The South Carolina legislature tried to get the 2/3 vote necessary to nullify the tariff

VII. “Nullies” in South Carolina

a. Tariff of 1832

i. It was better for the South than the one passed in 1828

ii. However, it still feel short of southern demands and it felt like tariffs would be permanent

b. Nullifiers vs. Unionists In SC

i. In the State election of 1832, these two groups battled it out. The “Nullies” won out, and got the 2/3 majority

ii. At a special convention, the delegates declared the existing tariff to be null and void within South Carolina

iii. In addition, they threatened to take SC out of the Union if the government tried to enforce the tariffs

c. Andrew Jackson’s Stern Response

i. Jackson was not a diehard supporter of the tariff, but he would not permit defiance or disunion

ii. His military instincts took over and privately threatened to invade the State and have the nullifiers hanged. In public, he dispatched naval and military reinforcements to SC, while quietly preparing a sizable army

iii. He also issued a proclamation against nullification, to which the governor of SC responded with a counterproclamation

d. Henry Clay Mediates

i. Didn’t want to see his rival win over supporters by crushing SC

ii. He supported tariffs

iii. Threw his influence behind a compromise bill that would gradually reduce the Tariff of 1832 by about 10% over a period of 8 years. By 1842, the rates would be back at the mildly protective level of 1816

e. Tariff of 1833

i. This compromise tariff was passed

ii. Opposition came from New England and the middle States

iii. The South was happy with the bill

f. Force Bill

i. No other Southern States supported succession

ii. Congress passed the Force Bill, authorizing the president to use the army and navy, to collect federal tariff duties

iii. At another special convention, South Carolina repealed the order of nullification on the tariff, but also nullified the Force Bill

g. Henry Clay Emerges As the Hero

i. Avoided armed conflict, but left nullification and other issues unresolved

VIII. The Trail of Tears

a. Western Expansion

i. 125,000 Native Americans lived in the forests and prairies east of the Mississippi in the 1820s

ii. The government recognized tribes as separate nations and negotiated treaties with them

iii. The government routinely violated their own treaties as the population went west

b. Assimilating the Indians

i. Many white Americans respected the Indians and thought they could be assimilated

ii. They tried to “civilize” them by sending missionaries

iii. In 1793, Congress appropriated $20,000 for the promotion of:

1. Literacy

2. Agriculture

3. Vocational instruction among the Indians

c. Accommodating the Indians

i. The Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles made a real effort to learn the way of the whites – “Five Civilized Tribes”; Cherokee Tribal Council

1. They gradually abandoned their seminomadic life and adopted a system of settled agriculture and private property

2. Missionaries opened schools

3. Created an alphabet

4. Wrote a legal code

5. Adopted a constitution that provided for an executive, legislative, and judicial branch

6. Some became prosperous slave owners on cotton plantations

d. Not Good Enough!

i. In 1828, the GA legislature declared:

1. The Cherokee tribal council illegal

2. Asserted its authority over Indian affairs and land

ii. The Supreme Court upheld the Indians’ rights three times

iii. Jackson refused to recognize their decisions because he wanted the lands open to white settlement – “John Marshall had made his decision; now let him enforce it”

e. Uprooting of the Indians

i. Jackson thought he would “rescue” the Indians by moving them west (to preserve their culture)

ii. Emigration was to be voluntary (didn’t want to be cruel)

f. Indian Removal Act of 1830

i. Forced the uprooting of more than 100,000 Indians living east of the MI River (mostly Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles)

ii. Many died on forced marches over the decade to Indian Territory (OK). There were to be permanently free of whites there (about 4,000)

iii. The “permanent” frontier lasted only 15 years

g. Indian Resistance

i. In 1832, some Indian tribes resisted, but were crushed by regular troops (Captain Abraham Lincoln)

ii. From 1835-1842, the Seminole Indians in Florida waged guerrilla warfare that took the lives of 1,500 soldiers. 4/5 of them were moved to present-day OK, while others fled to the Everglades

IX. The Bank War

a. Bank of the United States

i. Jackson distrusted the Bank of the United States because he thought it was monopolistic

ii. No bank in the United States had more power than the Bank of the United States

iii. It was the principal depository for the funds of the national government and controlled much of the nation’s gold and silver

iv. Its notes, unlike those of many smaller banks, were stable in value

v. As a source of credit and stability, the bank was an important and useful part of the nation’s expanding economy

b. Problems With the Bank

i. It was a private bank – not held accountable by the people, but by its rich investors (profit, not public service)

ii. It was against the principle of democracy

iii. It foreclosed on many western farms and put money into businessmen’s pockets

c. Bank War of 1832 (Nicholas Biddle was president)

i. Daniel Webster and Henry Clay presented Congress with a bill to renew the Bank of the U.S.’s charter

ii. The charter was not set to expire until 1836, but Clay pushed for renewal 4 years early to make it an election issue in 1832 (Clay was the leading candidate to run against Jackson)

iii. Clay’s wanted to pass the bill in Congress and send it to the White House. If Jackson signed it, he would alienate his western followers. If he vetoed it, he would alienate the wealthy and influential groups in the East

iv. The bill was vetoed by Jackson. He criticized it as being unconstitutional (McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) determined it to be constitutional)

v. Vetoes had formerly been used to determine questions of constitutionality. This set a new precedent (he argued that the bill would hurt the nation)

vi. The veto made Jackson popular with the common people

X. Andrew Jackson Beats Clay in 1832

a. Anti-Mason Party

i. For the first time, a third party entered the field – the Anti-Masonic party, which opposed the influence and fearsome secrecy of the Masonic order (they were recently energized by the mysterious disappearance and probable murder in 1826 of a New Yorker who was threatening to expose the secret rituals of the Masons)

ii. They appealed to the long-standing American suspicions of secret societies (primarily for the rich)

iii. Jackson was a Mason and attracted support from:

1. Anti-Jackson people

2. Protestant groups seeking to use political power to effect moral and religious reforms (no mail on Sundays – keeping the day holy)

b. Election of 1832 Precedents

i. First use by all the parties of national conventions for nominating candidates

ii. First use of platforms by Anti-Masons and National Republicans (publicizing their issues)

c. Clay’s Advantages

i. Many funds - $50,000

ii. Newspaper editors were paid off

d. Jackson’s Advantages

i. Popular with the masses

e. Election of 1832 Results

i. Jackson – 219; 688,000

ii. Clay – 49; 530,000

XI. Burying Biddle’s Bank

a. Exterminating the Bank

i. Jackson was convinced that the people had voted him in office to exterminate the bank

ii. He feared that the president of the bank, Nicholas Biddle, might try to manipulate the bank into getting rechartered…and he did

iii. Jackson decided to remove federal deposits form the bank. He wanted to do this by paying off day-to-day expenses of the government with that money

iv. However, removing the deposits involved nasty complications. Although many advised against it,

v. Biddle tried to show the bank’s importance and start a financial crisis by calling in the bank’s loans

b. Results of the Bank of the United States’ Demise

i. Started a cycle of booms and busts

ii. Surplus federal funds were placed in several dozen State institutions chosen for their pro-Jackson sympathies

iii. Since their was no central bank in control, many fly-by-night banks developed

iv. Currency was so unstable that the Treasury authorized a Specie Circular – a decree that required all public lands to be purchased with “hard” or metallic money

1. This stopped the speculation boom

v. All contributed to a depression in 1837

XII. The Birth of the Whigs

a. Parties Change and Develop

i. Democratic-Republicans adopt the name Democrats

ii. Jackson’s opponents were the Whigs – a name deliberately chosen to recollect 18^th century British and Revolutionary American opposition to monarchy (they hated Jackson’s use of presidential power)

b. The Whig Party

i. Hated Jackson and his executive usurpation

ii. The Whigs were somewhat unorganized as a party

iii. First emerged as a group when Clay, Webster, and Calhoun joined forces in 1834 to pass a motion censuring Jackson for trying to remove (without any else’s consent) federal deposits from the Bank of the United States

iv. Also garnered support from:

1. Clay’s American System

2. Southern States’ righters (offended by Jackson’s stand on nullification)

3. Northern industrialists and merchants

4. Evangelical Protestants (associated with the Anti-Masonic party)

a. From this group, they garnered support from the common man and portrayed Jackson as an aristocrat

c. Whig Party Platform

i. Supported active government programs and reforms

ii. Instead of western territorial acquisition, they called for internal improvements:

1. Canals

2. Railroads

3. Telegraph lines

4. Institutions (prisons, asylums, public schools)

iii. Also encouraged banks and corporations

iv. Wanted commercial and industrial development

XIII. The Election of 1836

a. Martin Van Buren

i. Vice-President was Martin Van Buren (D) – was to be the successor to Jackson

ii. Jackson was too old to run again

iii. Jackson rigged the nominating convention and gained enough support for his nomination

b. The Whigs

i. Hoped to run several prominent “favorite sons” from each region so that no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes. The deadlock would have to be decided in the House of Representatives, where the Whigs might have a chance

ii. The leading Whig “favorite son” was General William Henry Harrison (Battle of Tippecanoe)

c. Results of the Election of 1836

i. Van Buren won - 170; 765,483

ii. All Whigs combined – 124; 739,795

XIV. President Martin Van Buren

a. Characteristics

i. First to be born in the U.S.

ii. Short

iii. Slender

iv. Bald

v. From New York

vi. Had much experience in legislative life

b. Problems

i. Machine-made candidate – incurred resentment of many Democrats

ii. Jackson was harsh, while Van Buren was mild-mannered (so he wasn’t as popular)

iii. Inherited the ex-president’s numerous enemies

c. Rebellion/Slavery/Depression

i. Rebellion – Rebellion in Canada in 1837 stirred up incidents along the northern frontier and threatened to trigger war with Britain. The president claimed neutrality, which many people didn’t like

ii. Slavery – Antislavery people in the North were in full swing (condemning the annexation of TX)

iii. Depression – Inherited a depression from Jackson

XV. Panic of 1837 and the Independent Treasury

a. Causes of the Depression

i. Basic cause was rampant speculation (risking your money (and sometimes getting a loan) to buy land in the west in the hopes that it would make a profit). People were buying western lands on borrowed money, much of it in the shaky currency of the western “wildcat” banks

ii. Bank War and the Specie Circular (stated that land must be paid for in hard money, not paper or credit)

iii. Failure of wheat crops (because of the Hessian fly)

iv. The failure of two British banks which called in foreign loans

b. Results of the Depression

i. Banks collapsed by the hundreds (even some banks that had federal money – “pet banks”)

ii. Prices dropped

iii. Sales of public lands went down

iv. Customs revenues went down

v. Factories went out of business

1. Unemployment went up

vi. Lasted until the 1840s

c. Attempts to Stop the Depression

i. Whigs – wanted expansion of bank credit, higher tariffs, and subsidies for internal improvements

ii. Van Buren – Laissez-faire – keep the government out of the affairs of businesses and the economy

iii. Divorce Bill (Van Buren) – thought that the panic was partially caused by putting federal funds into private banks, so he wanted to “divorce” the government from banking altogether. To do this, he established an independent treasury where the government could lock its surplus money

1. Democrats – Didn’t like the plan because they liked the pet banks

2. Whigs – Didn’t like the plan because they wanted a Bank of the United States again

iv. The Independent Treasury Bill passed Congress in 1840

XVI. Gone to Texas

a. Spanish Plans For Texas

i. Spain owned Texas

ii. They wanted to populate this unpopulated area

iii. However, before they could carry out their plans, Mexico won their independence

iv. Mexico granted a huge tract of land to Stephen Austin, with the understanding that he would bring into Texas 300 American families. Stephen Austin worked to first make Texas independent of Mexico

v. Immigrants were to be of the established faith – Roman Catholic, and were to become assimilated into Mexican culture

vi. Texans ignored these stipulations and resented Mexican soldiers stationed there

b. Texan Americans

i. 1835 – Numbered 30,000

ii. Most were law-abiding, but a few had run from the law. Among them were:

1. Davy Crockett – the famous rifleman

2. Jim Bowie – known for his huge knife and knife fights

3. Sam Houston – Ex-governor of TN

c. Friction Between Mexicans and Texans

i. The pioneers who came to Texas were not easy to push around

ii. The main problem between the Mexicans and Texans came up over:

1. Slavery – Mexico emancipated its slaves in 1830 and prohibited their importation into Texas. This was ignored by the Texans

2. When Sam Houston went to Mexican dictator Santa Anna to negotiate slavery, he was put into jail for 8 months

3. 1835 – Santa Anna wiped out all local rights and started to raise an army to suppress the Texans

XVII. The Texas Rebellion (The Texas Revolution)

a. Texans Declare Their Independence & the Alamo

i. 1836 – Texans declare their independence

ii. Named Sam Houston commander in chief

iii. Santa Anna swept into Texas with 6,000 men

b. The Alamo & Goliad

i. Alamo –

1. Santa Anna trapped 200 Texans at the important fort of the Alamo in San Antonio

2. After 13 days, he wiped them out

3. Slain heroes like Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett became legendary in death – “Remember the Alamo”

ii. Goliad –

1. Mexicans surrounded and defeated 400 American volunteers

2. Those who were captured were killed

c. The Mexicans Surrender

i. General Sam Houston’s small army retreated to the east, luring Santa Anna to San Jacinto, near the site of the city that now bears Houston’s name

ii. Mexicans – 1,300 men; Texans – 900 men

iii. April 21, 1836 – The Texans wiped out the Mexicans and captured Santa Anna

iv. He signed a treaty that recognized the Rio Grande as the southwestern border of Texas. After released, he repudiated the agreement as illegal because it was signed under duress

d. American Neutrality?

i. The Texans couldn’t have won their independence without the help (money, supplies, and volunteers) of the United States

ii. Mexico complained that the U.S. should enforce their neutrality statutes, but American opinion nullified them

iii. Jackson recognized Texan independence on the day before he left office in 1837

e. Union With the United States

i. Texas wanted to become a State

ii. However, slavery was an issue:

1. Antislavery people in the North were opposing annexation. They contended that the whole scheme was merely a conspiracy to bring more pro-slavery people into Congress

2. Most of the people who settled in Texas were from the South. Most of the people who went into Texas’ volunteer army were from the South. In addition, many Texans were slaveholders

iii. Both President Jackson and Van Buren denied to recognize Texas as a State out of fear that a new slave State would be formed

XVIII. Log Cabins and Hard Cider of 1840

a. Candidates for the Election of 1840

i. Martin Van Buren – Democrat -

1. Wasn’t very popular

2. Blamed for the depression

ii. William Henry Harrison – Whig

1. Whigs corrected their mistake and united behind him

2. Was the most popular, not the most able

b. William Henry Harrison

i. Known for battles in the War of 1812. Was nicknamed Tippecanoe

ii. John Tyler was selected as his running-mate (Tippecanoe and Tyler too)

c. The Whig Campaign

i. A Democratic editor portrayed Harrison as an old farmer who should be content with a pension, log cabin, and hard cider

ii. As a result, the Whigs adopted the log cabin and hard cider as symbols of their campaign. They displayed Jackson and Van Buren as aristocrats

iii. This was exactly what the Democrats did with Jackson in earlier years

iv. In reality, Harrison was rich, lived in a 16-room mansion and 3,000 acre farm

d. Results of the Election of 1840

i. Harrison won 1,275,000 to 1,128,000 votes and 234 to 60 in the electoral college

ii. He sought to expand and stimulate the economy

XIX. Politics for the People

a. Democracy

i. By the 1840s, aristocracy was tainted, while democracy was respectable. In the early years of the republic, it was the other way. Politicians now needed to find favor with the voting masses

ii. Hopelessly handicapped was the candidate who appeared to be too clean, too well dressed, too grammatical, too intellectual (Webster apologized for not being born in a log cabin)

iii. Most high political offices continued to be filled with aristocracy, but now these people had to listen to the concerns and appeal to the common people

XX. The Two-Party System

a. The Two-Party System Emerges

i. By now, the two-party system was in full force

ii. In the Era of Good Feelings, it hadn’t truly emerged yet

iii. Both the Democrats and Whigs grew out of the Jeffersonian republicans

b. Differences Between the Democrats and Whigs

i. Democrats –

1. Advocated States’ rights and federal; restraint in social and economic affairs

ii. Whigs –

1. Favored a:

a. Renewed national bank

b. Protective tariffs

c. Internal improvements

d. Public schools

e. Moral reforms (prohibition of alcohol and abolition of slavery)

iii. Things In Common –

1. Mass-based

2. Commanded the loyalties of all Americans

3. Neither party was extreme because they wanted to work together/compromise to oust the other party out of power

4. Were geographically diverse (temporarily suppressed sectional issues, especially slavery)