CHAPTER 12

JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS

a.01

Lewis & Clark

b.02

Jacksonian Democracy

d.01 & 4

Indian Removal Act

d.07

Nate Turner's Revolt

e.04

2nd Party System

f.02

Panic of 1837

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[a.1]

LEWIS & CLARK

The 1803-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition told Thomas Jefferson a lot about the Louisiana Purchase.

good news

  1. The continent is crossable by land.
  2. Valuable topographic and climatic data obtained. Lewis and Clark also made sophisticated observations about the Indians they encountered.
  3. First map of Trans-Mississippi West obtained.

bad news

  1. Sioux Indians might be a barrier to peaceful white expansion into the West.
  2. The head waters of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers are separated by tortuous mountain terrain.
  3. Rainfall west of the 100th meridian is less than 20" a year--too little for dry farming.

[b.2]

JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

Historians debate the meaning of Jacksonian Democracy. The table below shows some of the ways it differed from the party of Thomas Jefferson. Perhaps the most striking is the emphasis on general white participation in politics as opposed to elite rule.

old and new compared

emphasis on white supremacy

The people of Jackson's age (1828-1840) spoke forcefully about white supremacy and the and virtues of the "common man." However, their talk about equality could not be reconciled with slavery in the south, leading to the undoing of the general consensus of the Jackson age.

[d.1 & 4]

INDIAN REMOVAL ACT, 1830

Georgia begins removal

The state of Georgia decided in 1830 to remove Cherokee Indians within its borders. The same year, Congress passed the first Land Exchange Act, which would provide new lands for tribes in Indian territory, present day Oklahoma. During the decade of the 1830, several tribes were forced west:

  • 1831--Choctaws from Mississippi
  • 1832--Chickasaws
  • 1836--Creeks
  • 1838--Cherokees from Georgia, NC, SC, and Tennessee

Indian wars

In addition to these removals, two major wars were fought between southern woodlands Indians and state and federal troops:

1812-1814--Creek War. Creeks ceded 23 million acres (2/3 of tribal lands) to government. Remnants moved west during the 1830's amid the theft of their land and utter impoverishment.

1816-1818--First Seminole War. Spain evacuated west Florida and handed a fort over to the Seminoles and run-away slaves. Andrew Jackson, the military commander in the area, ordered the army and a small flotilla to reduce the fort because it stood in the way of commerce with the gulf ports. Jackson won his war, but the Seminoles, far from defeated, retreated deeper into Florida.
1835-1842--Second Seminole War. Osceola, the Seminole chief, and others refused to obey an 1832 treaty that would force the Seminoles to join their Creek cousins, some of whom were already living west of the Mississippi. The war was a costly one for the US government. The army lost 1,500 soldiers--1 soldier for every 2 Seminoles sent west; The Federal government spent $20 million. Eventually the army gave up. Three thousand Seminoles went west, but significant numbers remained in the Everglades, where their descendants are found today.

[d.7]

NATE TURNER'S REVOLT

Revolt and repression

Nate Turner's revolt occurred in South Carolina in 1831. Fifty nine whites were killed. Armed local citizens captured Turner and 27 other slaves revels, tried them, and hung them. The episode made northern abolitionists seem even more dangerous.

Other forms of resistance

Turner's revolt was the most spectacular example of Black resistance to slavery, but it wasn't the one, nor was outright violence the most common expression. Countless other Blacks resisted in other, more passive ways: they broke tools, faked sickness, pretended not to understand orders, stole, or ran away.

Some revolts were successful

In 1792 L'Overture Toussaint, a black Haitian slave, revolted first against Spanish and British rule, then crossed swords with Napoleon. He did in Prison but Haiti became the 2nd oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere, next only to the US, in 1803.

[e.4]

2nd-PARTY SYSTEM, 1828-1856

The Whig party was formed as a counter-weight to the Jackson age democratic party. The table below lists some of their differences:

ISSUE

WHIG

DEMOCRAT

Presidential Elections won (1828-1856)

 

 

1840 (W.H. Harrison)

1848 (Taylor d. then M. Filmore)

1828 (A. Jackson)
1832 (A. Jackson)
1836 (M. van Buren)

1844 (J. K. Polk)

1852 (F. Pierce)
1856 (J. Buchannan)

Constituency: location/occupation

Commercial farmers, city merchant elites, factory owners, native-born factory workers. middle-class Protestants in the North; back country plantation owners in the south.

Immigrant workers, esp. Catholic Irish in northern cities, farmers along Ohio R. ("Butternuts") in the north; Poor regions of Appalachian Mts, coastal plantation owners, back country southern farmers without slaves in the south.

Bank and Internal Improvements

Defended the US Bank (charter expired 1836) as agent of economic progress and way to finance internal improvements under the "American System.

Disliked using federal money for canals and roads but favored harbor improvements for southern ports. Good harbors favored cotton shippers. Democrats feared federal money for transportation projects would lead to political corruption.

Slavery

Northern Whigs disliked slavery, but were not passionate about it. Northern middle-class Protestants getting indignant about slavery and bad treatment of the Indians gravitated to the Whig Party.

Southern democrats resolutely opposed Federal tampering with the slave issue. Northern democrats were uncomfortable with the issue, especially as the Civil War neared.

School Reform, Prison Reform, Temperance, and Religion

Protestant based "Conscious Whigs" stood for reforms in all these areas. Wanted to rehabilitate criminals. Dorthy Dix inspired building of humane insane asylum in NC. 91% of Whigs had supported it . Evangelical Whigs believed they could improve the world by converting individuals to the ways of God. Their belief led to attempts to pass various social legislation. Whigs would later help form the core of the new Republican Party in 1854.

Democrats hated social agenda of Whigs, especially attempts to limit alcohol consumption. Many Democrats agreed the nation drank too much, but felt it was improper for federal government to legislate drinking habits. The Irish were especially upset by attempts to limit their drinking get-togethers.

[f.2]

THE PANIC OF 1837

US economy crashes

As the heading implies, the US economy nose-dived in 1837. The origins of the collapse go back to 1835. At the heart of the problem was the lack of hard money in circulation.

  • 1835 crop failures. Farmers lose income.
  • 1836 Stock and commodity prices fall. Merchants and investors lose income.
  • 1836 Land and slave sales fall as Specie Circular requires hard money payment for land instead of paper notes.

The downturns in the American economy shook British investment confidence.

  • British banks recall loans.
  • US trade with Europe fell.

The above 2 factors resulted in flight of hard money to England. This made the shortage of hard money in the US more acute.

US government suspends specie payment

The administration of Martin van Buren reacted to the worsening economic situation. Since there was no more US Bank, the eastern banks and western state banks, now the repository of federal revenues (1833 Deposit Act), suspended hard money payments. This meant that people wanting to exchange paper for coin were unable to do so. The banks did this retain their solvency (sufficient coin to back the paper notes it circulated). The holding back of hard money made the already existing general lack of hard money even more severe. Suspension of payments was saving the banks but damaging the economy. State banks unable to withstand the pressure folded.

What happened?

The Panic of 1837 told many things about the American economy:

  • The market revolution had expanded the economy faster than hard money was minted. In effect, the US economy was lubricated with paper notes. As long as there was confidence, this was not a problem.


  • The US was dependent on British investment.


  • The striking down of the US Bank in 1836 meant that there was not central, stable financial institution in the country to control money supply.


  • Depositing Federal revenues in state banks was risky. In the Panic of 1837 some public money had been lost.

Solution

In 1840 Congress passed the Independent Treasury Act. Under this act, sub treasuries were established in eastern cities. The federal government, therefore, manages its own funds instead of placing them in state banks.

Whigs had opposed the plan. Their American system called for the revival of the Bank of the United States. The Independent Treasury Act was repealed in 1841 when the Whigs won the White House (President John Tyler). However, the Whigs never got their BUS restored. In 1846 a Democratic Congress restored the Independent Treasury. It remained the government deposit system until the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. But that a topic for History 1302.

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