ch 10-11 quiz review
South Carolina Nullification Ordinance
Nov 1832: SC state convetion overwhelmingly adopted THIS = repudiated the "unconstitutional" federal tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 (declaring them "null, void, and no law") if federal authorities tried to use force to collect the tariffs, SC vowed that they would secede from teh Union SC alone: no other southern state endorsed nullification
take a dramatic step: he removed all of Calhoun's supporters from his cabinet, forcing five of eight cabinet members to resign
What did Jackson's dispute with Calhoun prompt him to do
turned on Calhoun and others in SC when they threatened to "nullify" federal laws they didnt laike (og southerners thought that Jackson would support resistance to the federal tariff bc he was a cotton-planting slaveholder) counter: "the Union, next to our liberty, most dear! May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States and distributing equally the benefit and the burden of the Union!"
Why did Jackson say "Our Union - it must be preserved" in his toast at the first annual Jefferson Day dinner? what was Calhoun's counter toast
"plain white folk"
Yeoman farmers who lived and worked on their own small farms, growing food and cash crops to trade for necessities: most numerous white southerners were the small farmers who were usually uneducated and often illiterate live lives of bare self-sufficiency: - small farmers ("yeomen") lived with their families in simple two-room cabins, rasied a few hogs and chickens, grew some corn and cotton, and traed with neighbors more than they bought from stores Southern farmers tended to be fiercely independent and suspicious of government authority, and they overwhelmingly identified with the Democratic party of Andrew Jackson and the spiritual energies of the evangelical Protestant denominations such as Baptists and Methodists + most supported the slave system for both economic and racial reasons (enjoyed the privilege status that race-based slavery afforded them)
"poor whites"
a category of desperately poor people relegated to the least desireable land, living on the fringes of polite society, often in the Appalachian Mountains: "crackers" or "hillbillies" = day laborers or squatter who owned neither land nor slaves 40%: worked as "tenants", renting land from others, or as farm laborers, toiling for others usually live in log cabins + barely manage to stay fed and clothed
slavery Owning, working, and selling slaves was the quickest way to wealth and social status in the nineteenth-century South
fastest-growing element of national life during the first half of the nineteenth century
- increase in slave population occured naturally (slave births) - increased the cash value of slaves in the US -> convinced some owners to treat their slaves better (no longer just wear one out and buy another): some slaveholders hired white wage laborers (often Irish immigrants) for dangerous work rather thanrisk the lives of the more valuable slaves slave-trading network WITHIN the US became much more important and profitable (avg price of slaves QUADRUPLED in large part bc of the dramatic expansion of the cotton culture) -> breed and sell slaves = big business
how did Congress and President Thomas Jefferson's outlawin of AMerican involvement with the African slave trade in 1808 affect trade in slaves/treatment/increase
birth of presidential nominating conventions: - since presidency of Washington, most nominees had been chosen by party "caucuses" of prominent congressment and senators - jackson hate idea of legislators nominating presidents -> convine the Democrats to stage their first presidential nominating convetion as a means of involving more ppl in the process of selecting a candidate - innovation of presidential nominatin conventions reinforced jackson's image as a man of the people fighting against entrenched party leaders (people -> electors -> pres instead of people -> state legislatures first = power to people: democratic)
how did Jackson "democratize" the way presidential candidates were seleted
more and more landless white men were allowed to vote and hold office US Magazine and Democratic Review: "the principle of universal suffrage menat that white males of age constituted the political wealth and power" democratization: gave previously excluded white men equal status as citizens regarless of their wealth or background -> no longer was politics the arena for only the most prominent and wealthiest Americans (prmote the "common man")
how did american political life transform during the 1820s and 1830s (jacksonian democracy)
- African American folklore invented stories of resistance - spirituals - chose partners and forged a family life within the rigid constraints of the slave system: bc families always broken up (fragile), enslaved African Americans often extended the fellowship of family to those who worked together = "all belonged to one immense family" (not allowed to marry so marriages had no legal status, but slaveholders accept unofficial marriages as a stabilizing influence on the plantation) represent a variety of ethnic, linguistic, and tribal origins
how did forge their own sense of community, assert their individuality, and devise ingenious ways of resisting their confinement?
in cities (mostly in coastal cities): - anything but free: occupied an uncertain social status between slavery and freedom - SC: had ot pay an annual tax + were not allowed to leave the state + required to have a white "guardian" "free": purchase freedom or were freed ("manumitted) by their owners more rights than slaves: could enter into contracts, marry, own property (including slaves of their own), and pass on property to their children
how did free persons of color live in the South
- actively sought votes among the people, lobbied congressmen, and formed Hickory Clubs across the nation to campaign for him (campaigning democratized) - benefitted from a powerful Democratic party "machine" run by his secretary of state (later VP) Martin Van Buren (Ny lawyer with a shrewd political sense)
how was Jackson the most openly partisan and politically involved president in history to this point
When dealing with Indians in Georgia, he refused to interfere with the state's refusal to abide by U.S. Supreme Court rulings (said he had no constitutional authority to intervene in Georgia to protect the Cherokees). By contrast, in the nullification crisis with South Carolina, he used military force to deny the right of a state to defy the federal government.
how was jackson lowkey hypocritical
locoal banks and state govs (especially in South and West) feared the growing power of the "monopolistic" national bank: claimed BUS was preventing state banks from lending as much as they wanted and impeding businesses from borrowing as much as they wanted
how was the national bank controversial from the start even though it was beneficial to the infant economy
Secretary of State Martin Van Buren (New Yorker) VP John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
jackson's administration was divided between supporters for which two men?
disband it and start over (Jackson's "kitchen cabinet") both John Eaton and Martin Van Buren resigned along with the rest of the cabinet members -> enable Jacson toappoint a new group of senior officers Jackson rely more upon the advice of his so-called kitchen cabinet
what did Jackson decide was the only way to restore harmony in his warring cabinet
limit the role of the federal gov (while at the same time delivering additional blows to John C. Calhoun and to henry Clay, the man Jackson blamed for having "stolen" then 1824 election from him) ex: veto Maysville Road Bill
what did Jackson decisively use his executive autority to do?
viewed reelection as a "decision of the people against the bank": - vetoed the charter renewal of the BUS -> ordered the Treasury Department to transfer federal monies from the national bank to 23 state banks (called "pet banks" by Jackson's critics bc many were in the western states and were run by Jackson's friends and allies) - Treasury secretary wouldnt do it -> Jackson fired him (Jackson fired John Duane and replaced him with Attorney General Roger Taney, the only cabinet member who supported him on the issue: only one willing to follow jackson's order) move oney -> cause panic
what did Jackson do after he was reelected in 1832
democratic party
what did Jackson help create and shape + helped introduce modern presidential campaigning to electoral politics
"equal protection and equal benefits"
what did Jackson insist that government should offer to all the peopl
careful monitoring of the world markets for cotton, land, and slaves as well as careful management of the workers and production
what did success as a cotton planter require (planter elite)
feared that if the northern representatives in COngress were powerful enough to create such discriminatory tariffs, they might eventually vote to end slavery
what did the SC people fear, living in the only state where enslaved Africans were a majority of the population
support: - Clay and his "American System" of economic nationalism - a national bank and high tariffs: in south, Whigs tended to be bankers and merchants + west, the Whigs were farmers who valued gov-funded internal improvements - favored federal support for internal improvements to foster economic growth
what did the Whigs support
riotous scene: in a symbolic effort to reach out to the "common" people, Jackson opened the party to everyone -> the huge crowd of jubilant Democrats turned into a drunken mob -> dishes and glasses smashed and furniture broken "the reign of KING MOB seemed triumphant"
what happened at Jackson's inaugural ceremony (at the White House after the ceremony in March 1829) that caused concerns about his fitness for the presidency to heighten
anyone who could raise a certain minimum amount of money ("capital") could open a bank -> many did many of them went bankrupt after only a few onths or years with no central bank to regulate and oversee the operations of "wildcat" banks -> leave their depositors emptyhanded
what happened during te "free banking era" after 1837
Unlike the Democrats, who attracted Catholic voters from Germany and Ireland, Whigs tended to be native-born Protestants—Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists—who promoted social reforms such as the abolition of slavery and legislation to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages.
what is one way the whigs diff from the Democrats
despotism
absolute authority (Calhoun want it)
National Republican Party
aka Anti-Jackson party - leaders: Henry Clay and Daniel Webster + Biddle
kitchen cabinet
an informal group of close friends and supporters
Specie Circular (1836)
announce that the federal gov would accept only specie (gold or silver coins) in payment for land purchashed by seculators (farms could stil pay with paper money)
exercise expanded executive powers at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches believed that the ruling political and economic elit must be removed for "the people" are "the government, the sovereign power" in the US, and they had elected him president
as the first president to view himself as a representative of "the people", what did Jackson resolve to do?
put added strains on the nation's already-tight supplies of gold and silver eastern bans had to transfer much of their gold and silver reserves to western banks -> as banks reduced their reserves of gold and silver coins, they had to reduce their lending -> economy slow into a recession as the money supply contracted depositors cant redeem their deposits bc there was not enough specie (gold or silver coins) in their vaults
what resulted from the enactment of the Deposit Act and the Specie Circular
suffer from collapse in cotton prices: state lost almost 70000 residents who moved west during the 1820s in search of cheaper and more fertile land for growing cotton
what resulted from the financial Panic of 1819 sparking of a nationwide depression in South Carolina thoughout the 1820s
continuing industrialization, rapidly growing cities, rising tensions between the North and South over slavery, accelerating westward expansion, and the emergence of the second two-party system, featuring Democrats and Whigs surge in foreign demand for southern cotton and other ameican goods, along with substantial British investment in an array of new american enterprises, helped generate an economic boom and a transportation revolution
what sdid the nation witness during the so-called Jacksonian Era
- Whig Henry Clay insisted that suffering ppl were "entitled to the protecting care of a parental Government" - to him, an enlarged role for the federal gov was the price of a maturing, expanding republic in which elected official had an obligation to promote public "safety, convenience, and prosperity" (Van Buren and the Democrats believed that gov had no such obligations)
what was Henry Clay's idea on how to best deal with te unprecedented depression (this issue divided Democrats from Whigs)
Senate (led by Henry Clay) voted on March 28, 1834, to CENSURE Jackson (the only time an American president has been reprimanded in this way as opposed to actual impeachment)
what was Jackson's punishment for this probably illegal act of transferring the gov's deposits from BUS to pet banks
promised to ue "firmness and forbearance" with SC but stressed that nullification "means insurrection and war; and the other states have a right to put it down" (in private he was pissed: called it treason + want to hang them if there were any bloodshed)
what was jackson's response to the nullification crisis: what did he promise and what did he stress?
profits planters "care for nothing buy Negroes to raise cotton and raise cotton to buy Negroes" enslaved blacks = best investment that a southerner could make slavery existed to increase "the profit of the Master" "my object is to get the most I can for the property [slaves] . . . I care but little to whom and how they are sold, whether together [as families] or separated."
what was slavery (and self-serving paternalism: dehumanization) main purpose
destruction of the BUS and the Distribution Act: 1. Specie Circular: its requirement that all federal land purchased be transacts in gold or silver greatly reduced gov land sales -> pinching the federal budget -> struggling American banks had to borrow gold from European banks, but they couldn't get enough to prevent a financial panic and a deepening depression 2. decision to eliminate rather than reform the BUS: it could've acted as a stabilizing force amid the financial panic but nope -> economy flooded with worthless paper money without adequate backing in gold/silver
what were Jackson's mistakes that led to the Panic of 1837
only Louisiana and Alabama no state prevented separation of husband and wife
which two states prohibited separating a child younger than 10 from his or her mother
overseers
whites who worked on teh large plantations who managed the slaves to ensure they worked hard and efficiently + reponsible for maintaining the buildings, fences, and grounds were usually farmers or skilled workers, or the sons of planters, or simply poor whites eager to rise in stature move often in search of better wages and cheaper land tolerated no excuses or explanations. "To be accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished," Frederick Douglass said
William Henry Harrison
who did the Whigs choose at their nomiating convention for the presidency (with John Tyler of Virginia as VP), passing over Henry Clay? - victor at the Battle of Tippecanoe against Tecumseh's Shawnees in 1811 - former gov of the Indiana Territory - former congressman and senator from Ohio Whigs refused to take a stand on major issues but had a catchy slogan: "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" + Whigs chose the cider and log cabin symbols to depict THIS GUY as a simple man sprung from the people, in constrast to Van Buren's wealthy, aristocratic lifestyle ("log cabin and hard cider" campaign): Democrat newspaper had said that he seemed like the type of guy to spend his retirement "in a log cabin [sipping apple cider] on the banks of the Ohio [River]" Jacksonian time period ends with his election: WHIGS WIN election of 1840 and promise a return to prosperity without explaining how it would happen
Worcester v Georgia (1832)
Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was "a distinct political community" within which Georgia law had no force
nullification
The right claimed by some states to veto a federal law deemed unconstitutional. the ultimate weapon for those determined to protect state's rights against federal authority
dynamic religion: a unique mixture of African, Caribbean, and Christian elements often practice in secret bc many slaveholders feared enslaved workers might use group religious services as a means of organizing rebellions (Christianity but also spirits, magic, and conjuring) relief for the soul and release for their emotions 20% lean towards Christianity (or displayed aspects of the Christian faith in their forms of worship): found the Bible inspiring in its support for the poor and oppressed, and they embraced its promise of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus
describe African American religion
VP Martin Van Buren
who won the election of 1836: defeating the Whigs' three regional candidates: New Englander Daniel Webster, Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee, and William Henry Harrison of Indiana (Whig coalition adopted a stragety of nominating multiple candidates, hoping to throw the election into the House of Representatives in opposition to Jackson and the Democrats' handpicked successor to Jackson) - earned nickname "Little Magician" for short stature and "magical" ability to exploit his political and social connections: skillful politician w ability to organize and maniulate legislatures - elected gov of NY -> resigned to join Jackson's cabinet as sec of state then VP - Jackson's advisor and closest ally principles all subordinate to his ambition (self-centered)
exercised too much power over the economy and the people -> spoke for many western americans who felt that banks favored the "rich an powerful" men in the East banks printed too much of it, causing prices to rise (inflation): he wanted only coins to be used for economic transactions
why had jackson "always been afraid of banks" especially the national bank why did he distrust paper money
bc he didn't believe that he or the gov had any responsibility to rescue hard-pressed farmers, bankers, or businessmen or to provide relief for te jobless and homeless he did call a special session of Congress in 1837 -> canceled the distribution of the federal surplus to teh states bc there was no longer any surplus to distribute
wy was Van Buren called "Martin Van Ruin"
Bank War
Jackson vs. Biddle (fed. gov. director of bank); Jackson believed the Bank of US had too much power and was too rich; vetoed the 2nd Bank charter & withdrew gov. money from the US Banks & put it into "pet banks" -> Biddle try fight back but fail + backfire -> Jackson prevailed in THIS: BUS would shut down in 1841 ended the central bank only to unleash banking chaos
the nullification crisis in South Carolina
Jackson's commitment to nationalism over sectionalism was nowhere more evident than in his handling of what (deterined to strengthen the executive branch in order to strengthen the Union: vetoed 12 congressional bills)
Tories
Jackson's democratic followers were deemed THIS: supporters of teh "tyrannical king"
the (Peggy) Eaton Affair (politics of social scandal)
John Eaton, Secretary of War, was rumored to have had an affair with "Peggy" O'Neale Timberlake (an outspoken Washington temptress married to John Timberlake, a naval officer frequently at sea), whom he later married. She was snubbed by the wives of Jackson's cabinet (led by Calhoun's wife). This turned Jackson against Calhoun, drew Van Buren and Jackson closer together and dissolved the Cabinet. Calhoun resigned the vice presidency the next year and entered the Senate for South Carolina. Jackson pissed: "I did not come here (to Washington) to make a Cabinet for the Ladies of this place, but for the Nation" = he thought women had no right to mix politics with social life (rumoring and sniping became time-consuming distraction for the pres) Jackson blamed scandal on his rivals Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun (whom he caled a "villain")
Nat Turner Rebellion (1831)
Insurrection in rural Virginia led by black overseer Nat Turner, who murdered slave owners and their families; in turn, federal troops indiscriminately killed hundreds of slaves in the process of putting down Turner and his rebels Turner = trusted black overseer + literate preachers who believed God had instructed him to lead a slave rebellion - revolt began when a small group of slaves joined Turner in methodically killing his owner's family -> arm themselves + repeat the process at other farmhouses, where other slaves joined in - before revolt ended, 57 whites killed, most of them women and children - turner, called the "blood-stained monster" avoided capture for 6 weeks -> tried and found guilty -> dead body didmemberd, with body parts given to the victims' families (1831) results: -> Virginia legislature ebated whether slavery should be abolished -> instead the delegates restricted the ability of slaves to learn to read and write and gather for religious meetings -> states created vigilante groups of whites to patrol their communities looking for runaways
plantation mistress
Matriarch of a planter's household, responsible for supervising the domestic aspects of the estate (ex Mary Boykin Chesnut -> famous diary) "Born to lean upon others, rather than to stand independently by herself, and to confide in an arm stronger than hers," the southern woman had no desire for "power" outside the home
Jacksonian Democrats
- rarely defined what they meant by the "rule of the people" (democracy is a spillery and elastic concept) - showed little concern for the UNDEMOCRATIC contraints on African Americans, Native Americans, and women, all of whom were denied most basic political and civil rights
perculiar institution
A phrase used by whites in the antebellum South to refer to slavery without using the word "slavery" (slavery so central to their society's way of life)
Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831)
Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokees had "an unquestionable right" to their lands "until title should be extinguished by voluntary cession to the US"
Tariff of 1832
Congress passed this -> lowered taxes on many imported items, although tariffs on cloth and iron remained high not enough to satisfy Calhoun and others in SC -> they seethed with resentment towards Jackson and the federal gov
Maysville Road Bill
Federal funding for a 6 mile long Kentucky road from Kentucy to Lexington -> vetoed by President Andrew Jackson in 1830 (urged on by Martin Van Buren who wanted to preserve Erie Canal's monopoly over western trade) on grounds that the proposed road was a "purely local matter" since it was solely located in kentucky and thus outside the domain of Congress which had authoirty only over INTERSTATE commerce (federal funding for such local projects would thus requie a constitutional amendment) opponents considered this veto an abuse of power (said he trample on teh Constitution, internal improvements, and the Bank of the US in cartoon "King Andrew the First")
sugarcane
"killer crop" bc the working conditions were so harsh that many slaves died from exhaustion in teh heat and humidity of Louisiana
"fancy trade"
(in New Orleans) selling women as forced sexual partners
Andrew Jackson
- unique personality and a transformational leader - first president from a western state (Tennessee) - first not from a prominent colonial family (born along border between the two Carolinas + grew up in a struggling single-parent household: Elizabeth Jackson) - last to have participated in the Revolutionary War (blamed the british for the death of his brother and mother) - afte revoltution: self-taught frontier attorney in Tennesse -> dealt mostly with disputes over land claims + fell in love with Rachel Donelson Robards in Nashville - first to carry two bullets in his body from a duel and a barroom brawl - made a lot of money: attorney -> buyer and seller of houses, land, and slaves - not farming or raising racehorses -> served as the iron-willing commander of the Tennesse militia - ran roughshod over international law in his war against the British and Seminoles in Florida, presiding over the nation - dismissed criticism as an example of the "Eastern elite" continuing its efforts to control American politics polarizing emblem of a new demcratic era considered the first president of the common people (risen from the masses + shared many of their prejudices but was not one of them) No political figure was so widely loved or more deeply despised, yet he stamped his name and, more important, his ideas, personality, and values on an entire era of American history. (his election marked the impact of thirty years of democratic innovations in politics)
Force Bill
= legislation, sparked by the nullification crisis in SC, that authorized the president's use of the US Army to compel states to comply with federal law (collect tariffs): "force" compliance (President Jackson sent federal soldiers and a warship to Charleston. Governor Hayne responded by mobilizing the state militia, and the two sides verged on civil war -> pres requested THIS from congress) THIS led to the nullifiers backing down + SC legislature postponed the actual enforcement of the nullification ordinances in hopes that a comrpomise might be reached
the "poor and humble" Jackson promised to protect "the poor and humble" from the "tyranny of wealth and power": his populist goal was to evaluate the "laboring classes" of white men who "love liverty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws" (democratization)
Andrew Jackson championed what even though his economic policies contribued to the Panic of 1837 (a financial crisis that hit the working class the hardest)
cotton kingdom
Cotton-producing region, relying predominantly on slave labor, that spanned from North Carolina west to Louisiana and reached as far north as southern Illinois. ("Cotton is King") resulted largely from development of British textile mills (machinery developed to convert raw cotton into thread and cloth in textile mills: mecanical production of cotton) and Eli Whitney's cotton gin (solved the problem of the world's first industrial nation not getting enough cotton fiber to meet its needs: removes the sticky seeds from the bolls of what was called short-staple cotton)
mulattoes
Mixed-race people who constituted most of the South's free black population. (poeple of mized racial ancestry) (about 10% of blac population) some built substantial fotunes and even became slaveholders themselves (2% of total free black pop = black slaveholders)
Old Southwest
Region covering western Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, where low land prices and fertile soil attracted hundreds of thousands of settlers after the American Revolution.
field hands
Slaves who toiled in the cotton or cane fields in organized work gangs. (most slaves worked as this but some were craftsmen) supervised by a black "driver" or white overseer
spirituals
Songs with religious messages sung by slaves to help ease the strain of field labor and to voice their suffering at the hands of their masters and overseers. (sacred folk songs): offered them deliverance from their worldly woes "slaves sing most when they are most unhappy"
secession and war + the unexpected end of slavery
The increasingly militant efforts of northerners to restrict or abolish slavery helped reinforce the sense of southern unity while provoking an emotional defensiveness that would result in what
Panic of 1837
a financial calamity in the US brought on by a dramatic slowdown in the British economy and falling cotton prices (many Brit companies reduce trade with America bc financial crisis -> British demand for American cottom plummet), failed crops, high inflation, and reckless state banks - nation's financial sector began collapsing (as Van Buren entered office) - may 10, 1837: several large state banks in NY, running out of gold and silver, suddenly refused to convert customers' paper money into coins -> othe nations across nation did same = financial crisis (worse yet faced by the young nation) -> soon mushroomed into the republic's worst depression, lasting 7 yrs As creditors hastened to foreclose on businesses and farms unable to make their debt payments, the inflationary spiral went into reverse. Government spending plunged. Many canals under construction were shut down. In many cases, state governments could not repay their debts
Second Bank of the United States
charter of First Bank of US expired -> renewed as this = corporation chartered by COngress to provide a national paper currency and manage the gov's finances became the largest corporation in the nation and the only truly national business enterprise: - held all federal funds (most from land sales) - issued paper money (backed by gold and silver) as the national currency - helped accelerate business expansion (29 branches around the nation) - supplied a stable currency by forcing the 464 state banks to keep enogh gold coins in their vaults to back their own paper currency, which they loaned to people and businesses - led by Nicholas Biddle - with federal revenues soaring from land sales during early 1830s, it had accumulated massive amounts of money + economic power
"slave pens"
compounds operated by a slave trader that served as slave prisons until they could be sold (markets and auction houses sprang up to manage the growing internal slave trade) treated like ANIMALS + converted from people into products with prices
left a messy, even contradictory, legacy: - he championed opportunities for the "common man" to play a greater tole in the political arena at the same time that working men were forming labor unions to increase their economic power and political clout - helped establish the modern Democratic party and attracted to it the working poor and immigrants from eastern cities, as well as farmers from teh South and East - thru force and compromise: saved the Union by supressing the nullification crisis + paid off teh accumulated national debt in 1835 stressed that he had worked on behalf of "the farmer, the mechanic, and the laboring classes of society - the bone and sinew of the contry - men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws" ("the people" limited to a "white men's democracy") so convinced of the rightness and righteousness of his ideas that he was willing to defy constitutional limits on his authority + carved out a stronger role for the presidency (spoils system): eliminating the national bank and censoring the mails -> symbolize and aggravated the perennial tension in the American republic between democratic ideals and presidential power, states' rights and federal actions
describe Jackson's legacy
both houses of Congress pass Bank Recharter Bill -> July 10, 1832: Jackson veto + send it back to Congress w criticism of the bank - claim the BUS was both unconstitutional (Supreme Court disagreed) and "dangerous to our liberties": made 'the richer and the potent more powerful" while discriminating against "the humble members of society - the farmers, mechanics, and laborers" Webster could not get the Senate to override the veto (he accused Jackson of using the bank issue to "stir up the poor against the rich"-> set the stage for nationwide financial crisis and a dramatic presidential campaign (overriding issue in 1832 election was the future of the BUS)
describe Jackson's veto of the renewal of teh BUS charter
- once slaveholders realized how profitable a fertile female slave could be over time by giving birth to babies that could later be sold, they "encouraged" female slaves to have as many children as possilble (some rewarded for having babies) - put back to work withtin days -> spinning, weaving, or sewing - few weeks -> bac to fields with babies strapped to their backs (if they were breast-feeding) expected to do "man's work" often sexually abused by owners (both men and women) + forced impregnations
describe the lives of slave women
gold
discovery of what in north Georgia in 1829 fed whites' appetite for Cherokee land
two-party system
domination of national politics by two major political parties, such as the Whigs and Democrats during the 1830 and 1840s
German Coast Uprising (1811)
largest slave revolt in American history occured just north of New Orleans in the Louisiana Territory, where wealthy sugarcane planters had acquired one of the largest populations of slaves in North America: - jan 8: group of slaves broke into their owner's plantation house along the east bank of the Mississippi River -> planter escape but son killed - leader of assault = Charles Deslondes, a trusted slave overseer - seized weapons, horses, militia uniforms from the plantaion -> more slaves and get drunk -> headed towards New Orleans, burning houses and killing whites along the way -> ranks swelled to over 200 - success short-lived: angry whites + some free blacks + US Army and militia (who were later praised for their "tireless zeal and dauntless courage") supress the insurrection - Deslondes had his hands severed and thighs broken before he was shot and body burned - rebels beheaded -> heads placed on poles along the Mississippi River in order to strike fear into ensalved workers (it worked, slaves were all compliant now)
Indian Removal Act (1830)
law permitting the forced relocation of Indians of federal lands west of the Mississippi River in exchange for the land they occupied in teh East and South passed by Senate by a single vote -> by 1835: 46000 Indians had been relocated across the Mississippi River at government expense
Distribution Act (1836)
law requiring distribution of the federal budget surplus to the states, creating chaos among unregulated state banks dependent on such federal funds THIS and the Specie Circular would combine to play havoc with the economy and devastate the nation's finacial system: surge of unstable paper money issued by state banks peaked in 1836, when events combined suddenly to destroy the value of the bank notes
Old Hickory
nickname given to Jackson by his soldiers because he was as tough as the hard wood of hickory tree (loved rough-and-tumble combat of the raucous new democratic political culture)
Cherokees
of all the so-called Civilized Tribes, THESE PEOPLE living in the mountainous areas of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolina, had come closest to adopting the customs of white america: built roads, houses, towns, planted orchards, cultivated farms, fenced pastured for their livestock, organized churches, established newspapers + modeled own system of gov of that of the US
planter
owners of large farms in the South that were worked by twenty or more slaves and supervise by overseers (rare to be a powerful planter: less than 3% of white men in South) wives = "mistresses"
South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828)
pamphlet written in secret by John C Calhoun: - claimed that the Taridd of 1828 favored the interest of NE textile manufacturing over southern agriculture -> under such circumstances: a state could "nullify" (or veto) a federal law it deemed unconstitutional
Clay's Compromise
passage of the compromise bill in Congress depended upon the support of Senator Henry Clay (urged to save the day for the Union) Feb 1833: Senator Henry Clay circulate a plan to reduce the federal tariff gradually (less than SC preferred but it got the nullifiers out of the dilemma they had created) + Calhoun supported the compromise: "He who loves the Union must desire to see this agitating question [the tariff] brought to a termination." March 1, 1833: Congress passed the comrpomise tarif and the Force Bill -> Jackson sign both the next day -> SC convention met and rescinded its nullification of the tariff acts: face-saving gesture = the delegates nullified the Force Bill (Jackson no longer needed it) Jackson had upheld the supremacy of the Union, and South Carolina had secured a reduction of the federal tariff: victory for both sides (but southern slaveholders still feel threatened by growing anti-slavery sentiment in North)
Whig party
political party founded in 1834 in opposition to the Jacksonian Democrats; supported federal funding for internal improvement, a national bank, and high tariffs on imports (formed under leadership on Henry Clay) anti-Jackson coalition: united chiefly by their hostility to the president's authoritarian style (Jackson's domineering manner had given rise to the nickname "King Andrew I") name linked them to the Patriots of the American Revolution (as well as the parliamentary oponents of the Tories in Britain) grew out of the National Republican party of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster + attracted members of the Anti-Masonic and democratic parties, who for one reason or another opposed Jackson's stand on the national bank, states' rights, and his disregard of the Supreme Court, etc -> THIS PARTY and the Democrats would be the two major political parties + two-party system emerge for second time
Bank War
political struggle in the early 1830s between President Jackson and financier Nicholas Biddle over the renewing of the Second Bank's charter revealed that the president never truly understood the bank's role or policies: it had provided a stable currency for the expanding economy, as well as a mechanism for controlling the pace of economic growth by regulating the ability of branch banks and state banks to issue paper currency
race-based slavery
provided the South's prosperity as well as its growing sense of separateness from the rest of the nation (southern state legislatures were "one and indivisible" in their efforts to preserve and expand slavery)
slave codes
regulations governing the treatment of slaves in each state in order to deter runaways and rebellions slave owner felt th need to develop a complex system of rules, regulations, and restrictions to govern teh slaves' daily lives no stay out past curfew, no leave owner's land, no learn to read or write (ignorance was the greatest hold the South had) + Slaves in most states could not testify in court, legally marry, own firearms, or hit a white man, even in self-defense. Yet despite such restrictions and brutalities, the enslaved managed to create their own community and culture within the confines of the slave system.
- restraining effects of Biddle's national bank removed, hundreds of new state banks sprouted like mushrooms, each printing its own paper currency to lend to land speculators and new businesses - states plunged themselves heavily into debt to finance the building of roads and canals - total state indebtedness had soarded by 1837 sparked the dangerous misbehavior among small state banks that Jackson most feared = irony: he had not helped kill the BUS to create "a wilderness of local banks" "I did not join in putting down the paper currency of a national bank to put up a national paper currency of a thousand local banks." whole affiar led to the creation of the Whig party
results of the Bank War
Gabriel's Rebellion
slave named Gabriel Prosser, who worked as a blacksmith on a plantation near Richmon, Virginia, hatched a revolt involving about 1000 other salves: planned to seize key points in the city, capture the governor (James Monroe), and overthrow the white elite + expected "poor white people" to join -> didnt happen bc someone ratted them out to whites -> captured, tried, and hanged before executed: explain he was only imitating George Washington: "I have ventured my life in endeavoring to obtain the liberty of my countrymen"
Treaty of New Echota
small group of Cherokees led by Elias Boudinot signed THIS is 1835 in which they agreed to move the Indian Territory in Oklahoma
slave rebellions
southern whites feared THIS more than anyting bc revolt would "deluge the southern country with blood" -> any sign of resistance risked a brutal response overwhelming authority and firepower of southern whites = risky
- reduce federal spending - pay off the federal debt (a "national curse") - destroy the Second Bank of teh United States (BUS) - relocate the "ill-fate race" of Indians from the East to the West so that whites could exploit their ancestral lands (expanded presidential authority)
what did Jackson and the Democrats want to do bc they believed that "the world is governed too much"
Webster-Hayne Debate
states' rights vs national unity: - fiery speech: Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina argued that anti-slavery Yankees were invading the South, "making war upon her citizens, and endeavoring to overthrow her principles and institutions.": in his view, the Union was created bythe states -> states therefore had the right to nullify, or ignore, federal laws they didnt like (independence of states more important than the preservation of the Union) - Massacusetts senator Daniel Webster rose to defend North (and teh Union): determined "to strenghten the ties that hold us together" -> pointed out that the US Constitution was created not by the states but by the American people -> if states allowed to nullify a federal law, the Union would be nothing but a "rope of sand" - Hayne charged that South Carolina's defiance of federal authority"is nothing more than resistance by FORCE - it is disunion by FORCE - it is secession by FORCE - it is Civil War" - Webster's powerful closing statement: "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable" (Hayne said to Webster: "a man who can make such speeches as that ought never to die") webster had better argument: most political leaders agreed that the states couldn't act separately from the national gov (otherwise if the states can chose which laws to obey or not there would be chaos) president pleased: the Constitution as its laws were "supreme"
slaves in cities enjoyed greater mobility and freedom than their counterparts in rural areas living on isolated farms or plantations (they had interacted with white owners AND the extended interracial community)
sum up the difference between slaves in cities an slaves in plantations
Independent Treasury Act (1840)
system created by Van Buren that moved federal funds from favored state banks to teh US Treasury, whose financial transactions could only be in gold or silver van buren belived that the federal gov should stop risking its deposits in shaky state banks -> wanted to establish an independent treasury system whereby the gov would kep its funds in its own bank valuts and do business entirely in gold or silver, not paper currency + wanted federal gov to regulate the nation's supply of gold and silver and let the marketplace regulate the supply of paper currency
Tariff of Abominations (aka Tariff of 1828)
tax on imported goods, including British cloth and clothing (tariff on imported cloth), that strengthened New England textile companies but hurt southern consumers and cotton growers, who experienced a decrease in british demand for raw cotton growth from America in the South raised prices southerners had to pay for imports (overplanting and competition also add to SC's problems)
Trail of Tears (1838-1839)
the Cherokees' 800-mile jounrey from teh southern Appalachians to Indian Territory (Cherokees gave up their land in the Southeast: 100 million acrs -> exchange for 32 million acrs in teh "Indian Territory" to the west of Arkansas: part of present-day OKLAHOMA) mostly on foot: 4000 refugees out of 17000 died along the way + few held out in the mountains and acquired title to federal land in North Carolina -> became known as the "Eastern Band" of Cherokees
driver
the highest managerial position a slave could hope for on a plantation = a favored man whose job was to oversee a small group ("gang") of slaves, getting them up and organized each morning by sunrise, and then directing their work (and punishing them) until dark
aristocracy, controlling political, economic, and social life (slavery creates an aristocracy)
the large planters behaved like what
Denmark Vesey Revolt
this plot was hatched in 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina: - VESEY: born in 1767 on Carribean island + purchased by slave trader based in Charleston - 1799: he purchased a lotterty ticket and won $1500 -> buy freedom + open carpentry shop and organized Bible study class in the African Methodist Episcopal Church - 1822: he + others develop plan for massive slave revolt 1. capture the city's arsenal and distribute its hundreds of rifles to free and enslaved blacks 2. all whites in the city would then be killed, along with any blacks who refused to join the rebellion 3. burn the city, seize ships in teh harbor, and head for the black republic of Haiti, where slaves in the former French sugar colony, then called Saint-Domingue, had staged a successful revolt in 1791 NONE OF THIS EVERY HAPPENED: vesey and others secretly tried to recrit slaves but one snitched led officials in SC to place even more restrictions on mobility of free blacks and black religious gatherings + influenced John C. Calhoun to abandon the nationalism of his early political career and become the Souther's most forceful spokesman for states' rights
spoils system
to dislodge the eatern political elite, Jackson replaced many feeral officials with his own friends and supporters (fired Federalists), arguing that gov jobs belonged to the people, not to career bureaucrats "to the victor goes the spoils" Jackson moved to remove long-standing office holders in an attempt to rid Washington of individual interests
Bank President Nicholas Biddle
try to create a depression and reveal the importance of maintaining the national bank: ordered the BUS to quit making loans and demanded that state bans exchange their paper currency for gold or silver coins as quickly as possible -> deflationary policies that reduced the amount of money circulating in the economy - Congress was furious at Jackson for his unlawful actions and they believed that Jacson saw himself above the law -> rumors of impeachment began to circulate - fortunately for Jackson, THIS GUY, over-reacted, attempting force a recharter of the Bank by creating a financial panic (think he can make the panic bigger by making ppl think the bank is necessary -> causes the panic to settle down though: plan backfire)
