APUSH Chapter 10 Notes
Nullification
The constitutional argument that a state legislature or convention could void a law passed by Congress. The concept of nullification had its origins in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798, which were drafted by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and was elaborated in John C. Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828) and in the Ordinance of Nullification (1832). South Carolina's act of nullification rested on the constitutional arguments developed in The South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828). Written anonymously by Vice President John C. Calhoun, the Exposition gave a localist (or sectional) interpretation to the federal union.
Why did the Freemasons fall into disrepute in 1826?
The kidnapping and murder of a disloyal member had raised suspicions.
American System
The mercantilist system of national economic development advocated by Henry Clay and adopted by John Quincy Adams. It had three interrelated parts: a national bank to manage the nation's financial system; protective tariffs to provide revenue and encourage American industry; and a nationally funded network of roads, canals, and railroads. Henry Clay based his candidacy on his American System, an integrated program of national economic development similar to the Commonwealth System of the state governments. Clay wanted to strengthen the Second Bank of the United States and to use tariff revenues to build roads and canals. His nationalistic program won praise in the West, which needed transportation improvements, but elicited sharp criticism in the South, which relied on rivers to market its cotton and had few manufacturing industries to protect. William Crawford of Georgia, an ideological heir of Thomas Jefferson, denounced Clay's American System as a scheme to "consolidate" political power in Washington. Recognizing Crawford's appeal in the South, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina withdrew from the race and endorsed Andrew Jackson.
Alexis Tocqueville
The negative verdict was unanimous. "The most able men in the United States are very rarely placed at the head of affairs," French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville concluded in Democracy in America (1835). The reason, Tocqueville suggested, lay in the character of democracy itself. Most citizens ignored important policy issues, jealously refused to elect their intellectual superiors, and listened in awe to "the clamor of a mountebank [a charismatic fraud] who knows the secret of stimulating their tastes."
What was a major contributing factor to the democratization of politics in the 1820s and 1830s?
The popular election of most offices
Patronage
The power of elected officials to grant government jobs and favors to their supporters; also the jobs and favors themselves. Beginning around 1820, politicians systematically used — and abused — patronage to create and maintain strong party loyalties. After 1870, political reformers gradually introduced merit-based civil service systems in state and federal governments to reduce patronage. Patronage was an even more important tool. When Van Buren's Bucktails won control of the New York legislature in 1821, they acquired a political interest much greater than that of the notables: the power to appoint some six thousand of their friends to positions in New York's legal bureaucracy of judges, justices of the peace, sheriffs, deed commissioners, and coroners.
Ethnocultural Politics
The practice of voting along ethnic, racial, and religious lines. Ethnocultural allegiances were a prominent feature of American political life in the mid-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The split between Tyler and the Whigs allowed the Democrats to regroup. The party vigorously recruited subsistence farmers in the North, smallholding planters in the South, and former members of the Working Men's Parties in the cities. It also won support among Irish and German Catholic immigrants—whose numbers had increased during the 1830s—by backing their demands for religious and cultural liberty, such as the freedom to drink beer and whiskey. A pattern of ethnocultural politics, as historians refer to the practice of voting along ethnic and religious lines, now became a prominent feature of American life. Thanks to these urban and rural recruits, the Democrats remained the majority party in most parts of the nation. Their program of equal rights, states' rights, and cultural liberty was more attractive than the Whig platform of economic nationalism, moral reform, temperance laws, and individual mobility.
What prompted the emergence of a second national party in the mid-1830's?
The rise of Democracy and Jackson's tumultuous presidency * The expansion of male suffrage and the leadership of Andrew Jackson in the Democratic Party triggered the formation of modern disciplined nationwide parties- the Democrats and their opponent, the Whigs.
Whig Party
The rise of the Democracy and Jackson's tumultuous presidency sparked the creation in the mid-1830s of a second national party: the Whigs. For the next two decades, Whigs and Democrats competed fiercely for votes and found supporters in different cultural groups. Many evangelical Protestants became Whigs, while most Catholic immigrants and traditional Protestants joined the Democrats. By debating issues of economic policy, class power, and moral reform, party politicians offered Americans a choice between competing programs and political leaders. "Of the two great parties," remarked philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, "[the Democracy] has the best cause... for free trade, for wide suffrage, [but the Whig party] has the best men." The rise of the Democracy and Jackson's tumultuous presidency sparked the creation in the mid-1830s of a second national party: the Whigs. For the next two decades, Whigs and Democrats competed fiercely for votes and found supporters in different cultural groups. Many evangelical Protestants became Whigs, while most Catholic immigrants and traditional Protestants joined the Democrats. By debating issues of economic policy, class power, and moral reform, party politicians offered Americans a choice between competing programs and political leaders. "Of the two great parties," remarked philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, "[the Democracy] has the best cause... for free trade, for wide suffrage, [but the Whig party] has the best men."
Who were the "notables" who had dominated American political life until the 1820s?
The wealthy elite
Spoils System
The widespread award of public jobs to political supporters after an electoral victory. In 1829, Andrew Jackson instituted the system on the national level, arguing that the rotation of officeholders was preferable to a permanent group of bureaucrats. The spoils system became a central, and corrupting, element in American political life. This spoils system was fair, Van Buren suggested, because it "would operate sometimes in favour of one party, and sometimes of another." Party government was thoroughly republican, he added, as it reflected the preferences of a majority of the voters.
What statement reflects a way the Whigs differed from the Democrats in the 1840's
They believe that the wealthy should govern. * The Whigs believed that an aristocracy of the wealthy, chose by talent, should govern the country, as opposed to the Democrats, who argued that ordinary Americans were capable of governing themselves.
Why did some eastern supporters of Native Americans favor resettlement of Indians west of the Mississippi River?
They believed resettlement would actually protect Indians.
Why did the Whigs run four presidential candidates in the election of 1836?
They hoped the election would end up in the House of Representatives.
What unusual move did the Whigs make in 1840 to try to generate support for their candidates?
They sought the support of women.
Why did the Whig Party chose its name?
They wanted to identify themselves with the pre-Revolutionary parties that opposed royal power * The Whigs accused the "King Andrew I" of violating the Constitution by creating a spoils system and undermining elected legislators, who were the true representatives of the sovereign people.
Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison ran in 1840 in part on his war record and his victory in what battle?
Tippecanoe
Why did President Andrew Jackson insist on getting Congress to pass the Force Bill to threaten South Carolina even while he was willing to reduce the tariff that southerners objected to?
To assert federal authority and preserve the Union
"Kitchen Cabinet"
To make policy, Jackson relied primarily on an informal group of advisors: his so-called "Kitchen Cabinet." Its most influential members were Kentuckians Francis Preston Blair, who edited the Washington Globe, and Amos Kendall, who wrote Jackson's speeches; Roger B. Taney of Maryland, who became attorney general, treasury secretary, and then chief justice of the Supreme Court; and, most important, Martin Van Buren, whom Jackson named secretary of state.
The Second Bank of the United States stabilized the nation's money by demanding that state banks redeem their own notes in what way?
Using hard money, or specie
Black Hawk
When Chief Black Hawk and his Sauk and Fox followers refused to leave rich, well-watered farmland in western Illinois in 1832, Jackson quickly sent troops to expel them. Following a series of confrontations, the U.S. Army pursued Black Hawk into the Wisconsin Territory and, in the brutal eight-hour Bad Axe Massacre, killed 850 of his 1,000 warriors. Over the next five years, American diplomatic pressure and military power forced seventy Indian peoples to sign treaties and move west of the MississippiThis portrait of Black Hawk (1767-1838), by Charles Bird King, shows the Indian leader as a young warrior, wearing a medal commemorating an early nineteenth-century agreement with the U.S. government. Later, in 1830, when Congress approved Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act, Black Hawk mobilized Sauk and Fox warriors to protect their ancestral lands in Illinois. "It was here, that I was born - and here lie the bones of many friends and relatives," the aging chief declared. "I... never could consent to leave it."
Which statement describes the American economy in 1843? a. Labor unions increased in strength and power. b. Overall prices declined by 50 % c. Canal construction was booming. d.Unemployment was low in urban areas.
b. overall prices declined by 50%
President Andrew Jackson was the first man in the White House who
came from a trans-Appalachian state.
In the presidential election of 1824, William Crawford was nominated by an informal meeting of congressional leaders called the
caucus.
Martin Van Buren awarded state jobs to his supporters in a process known as
patronage.
Jackson's practice of appointing loyal members of his party to public offices became known as
the spoils system. * Jackson promised rotation in office and used patronage to achieve it by putting his own supporters into office, which became known as the spoils system.
Why has most local unions and all the national labor organizations disappeared by 1843?
A depression and surplus of unemployed workers spelled ruin for unions * By creating a surplus of unemployed workers, the depression brought on by the Panic of 1837, completed the decline of the union movement and the Working men's Parties, and by 1843, most local unions, all the national labor organizations, and all the workers' parties had disappeared.
Caucus
A meeting held by a political party to choose candidates, make policies, and enforce party discipline. To ensure the passage of the party's legislative program, Van Buren insisted on disciplined voting as determined by a caucus, a meeting of party leaders. On one crucial occasion, the "Little Magician"—a nickname reflecting Van Buren's short stature and political dexterity—gave an elaborate banquet in honor of seventeen New York legislators who sacrificed "individual preferences for the general good" of the party.
What was a term Andrew Jackson's supporters used to describe him?
A self-made man
Why did Thomas Jefferson condemn John Quincy Adams from his deathbed for promoting "a government of aristocracy"?
Adams supported high protective tariffs for northeastern manufacturers.
Thomas Cole
Andrew Jackson was a polarizing figure whose policies and personality divided Americans. One Jacksonian critic was Thomas Cole (1801-1848). Born in England, Cole came to the United States in 1817 and soon acquired a reputation as a fine landscape painter - a leading member of the so-called Hudson River School. Between 1833 and 1836, Cole executed a series of five large canvases collectively known as The Course of Empire, a veiled attack on Jacksonian democracy.
What were the "pet banks" that figured in the Jackson administration?
Banks chose to receive gold and silver formerly held by the Second Bank * Jackson had withdrawn all gold and silver reserves from the Second Bank of the united States and decided to place them with a number of individual state banks. Critics called these banks "pet banks"
"Corrupt Bargain"
Because no candidate received an absolute majority, the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1804) specified that the House of Representatives would choose the president from among the three highest vote-getters. This procedure hurt Jackson because many congressmen feared that the rough-hewn "military chieftain" might become a tyrant. Out of the race himself, Henry Clay used his influence as Speaker to thwart Jackson's election. Clay assembled a coalition of congressmen from New England and the Ohio River Valley that voted Adams into the presidency. Adams showed his gratitude by appointing Clay his secretary of state, which was the traditional stepping-stone to the presidency. Clay's appointment was politically fatal for both men: Jackson's supporters accused Clay and Adams of making a secret deal. Condemning what Calhoun labeled a "corrupt bargain" that thwarted the popular mandate for Jackson's election, they vowed to oppose Adams's policies and to prevent Clay's rise to the presidency.
In what respect were the Whigs of the 1830s similar to the Federalists at the beginning of the nineteenth century?
Both sought leaders with wealth and ability. *Federalists and Whigs were both skeptical of the general population and their ability to govern themselves without the commanding voice and authority of an elite. However, whereas the Federalists believed in an elite that derived its authority from birth and pedigree, Whigs believed that talent and wealth ought to matter in the popular selection of the nation's leaders.
Working Men's Party
By 1833, laborers had established Working Men's Parties in fifteen states. The new parties were locally based but shared a common ideology. They rejected "the glaring inequality of society" that subordinated the interests of workers to those of their employers. "Past experience teaches us that we have nothing to hope from the aristocratic orders of society," declared the New York Working Men's Party. It vowed "to send men of our own description, if we can, to the Legislature at Albany." elected a number of assemblymen, authorize tax-supported schools so that workers' children could rise in the world. ultimate goal was a society without dependent wage earners. "All men will be independent proprietors, working on their own capitals, on their own farms, or in their own shops."won office in many cities, but divisions over policy and the parties' weakness in statewide contests soon took a toll. By the mid-1830s, most politically active workers had joined the Democratic Party and were urging it to eliminate protective tariffs and tax the stocks and bonds of wealthy capitalists.
How did Martin Van Buren make party politicians acceptable as government leaders?
By rejecting traditional republicanism
Which Indian nation had been forced to give up lands by Andrew Jackson before he became president?
Creek
What status did the Supreme Court decision in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia affix to Indian people?
Domestic dependent nations
"Pet Banks"
Early in 1833, Jackson met their wishes by appointing Roger B. Taney, a strong opponent of corporate privilege, as head of the Treasury Department. Taney promptly withdrew the government's gold and silver from the Second Bank. He deposited the specie in various state banks, which critics called Jackson's "pet banks." To justify this abrupt (and probably illegal) transfer, Jackson declared that his reelection represented "the decision of the people against the bank" and gave him a mandate to destroy it. This sweeping claim of presidential power was new and radical.
Why was the presidential election of 1824 the last stand of the notables?
Elections after the 1824 would be dominated by modern parties with broad social bases * Following the 1824 election, elections would be dominated by modern political parties built on broad social coalitions and designed to get vetoes from as many people as possible, signaling the end of the old system of deference that the notables had counted on to govern
Ethnocultural politics refers to the practice of voting along what lines?
Ethnic
Who opposed the Indian Removal Act in Congress in 1830?
Evangelical Protestants
Laissez-faire
French for "let do" or "leave alone." The principle that the less government does, the better, particularly in reference to the economy. This has been an influential philosophy in the United States. In the nineteenth century, Democrats tended to advocate laissez-faire against state-building Whigs and Republicans. In the twentieth century — especially from the New Deal onward — Republicans have become the main champions of laissez-faire. The new constitutions also embodied the principles of classical liberalism, or laissez-faire, by limiting the government's role in the economy. (Twentieth-century social-welfare liberalism endorses the opposite principle: that government should intervene in economic and social life.)
Why did President Jackson veto the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States?
He believed the bank to be unconstitutional.
In 1834, Philip Hone wrote in his diary that New Yorkers celebrated the victory of Jacksonian Democrats with shouts of "Down with the aristocracy!" He continued: "They have succeeded in raising this dangerous spirit..., and have gladly availed themselves of its support to accomplish a temporary object; but can they allay it at pleasure?" What was Hone concerned about?
He feared that Jacksonian Democrats had invited mob rule and chaos to the nation * In this passage, Hone was asking whether Jacksonian Democrats new hoe to contain the mob they had, in the view, so dangerously aroused for their own political advantage.
What was Hone concerned about?
He feared that Jacksonian Democrats had invited mob rule and chaos to the nation.
How did Martin Van Buren defend the existence and use of political parties?
He said they were the best means of curbing government power * Van Buren argued against the old belief that parties or "factions" were dangerous and claimed that they in fact protected free government by limiting the abuse of power.
Why did John Tyler not support the agenda of the Whig Party when he became president?
He was opposed to the American System.
Charles River Bridge Co. v. Warren Bridge Co.
In the landmark case Charles River Bridge Co. v. Warren Bridge Co. (1837), Taney declared that a legislative charter—in this case, to build and operate a toll bridge—did not necessarily bestow a monopoly, and that a legislature could charter a competing bridge to promote the general welfare: "While the rights of private property are sacredly guarded, we must not forget that the community also has rights." This decision directly challenged Marshall's interpretation of the contract clause of the Constitution in Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), which had stressed the binding nature of public charters. By limiting the property claims of existing canal and turnpike companies, Taney's decision allowed legislatures to charter competing railroads that would provide cheaper and more efficient transportation. The Taney Court also limited Marshall's nationalistic interpretation of the commerce clause by enhancing the regulatory role of state governments.
Worcester v. Georgia
In the meantime, the Cherokees had carried the defense of their lands to the Supreme Court, where they claimed the status of a "foreign nation." In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), Chief Justice John Marshall denied the Cherokees' claim of independence and declared that Indian peoples were "domestic dependent nations." However, in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Marshall and the court sided with the Cherokees against Georgia. Voiding Georgia's extension of state law over the Cherokees, the court held that Indian nations were "distinct political communities, having territorial boundaries, within which their authority is exclusive [and is] guaranteed by the United States."
How did the Panic of 1837 affect the labor movement?
It eviscerated the labor movement. * The creation of a surplus of unemployed workers completely undermined the labor movement. By 1843, most local unions and all the national labor organizations had disappeared, along with their newspapers.
Roger B. Taney
Jackson also undermined the constitutional jurisprudence of John Marshall by appointing Roger B. Taney as Marshall's successor. During his long tenure as chief justice (1835-1864), Taney partially reversed the nationalist and vested-property-rights decisions of the Marshall Court and gave constitutional legitimacy to Jackson's policies of states' rights and free enterprise.
What had Jackson done that angered Henry Clay so much?
Jackson had used his veto power to block Congress.
Ladies Circular
Jackson then pushed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 through Congress over the determined opposition of evangelical Protestant men—and women. To block removal, Catharine Beecher and Lydia Sigourney dispatched the Ladies Circular, which urged "benevolent ladies" to use "prayers and exertions to avert the calamity of removal." In response, women from across the nation flooded Congress with petitions. Despite their efforts, Jackson's bill squeaked through the House of Representatives by a vote of 102 to 97.
Why did the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States become an issue?
Jackson's opponents wanted to use the issue to hurt the Democrats. * Henry Clay and Daniel Webster brought up the bank's rechartering four years early in an attempt to hurt Jackson's support and split the Democrats. Jackson turned the tables by attacking the bank and using it to carry him to victory in 1832
Which statement correctly summarizes the changes in voting patterns between 1824 and 1840 that are illustrated in the pie charts?
Jacksonian Democrats dominated the party competition in this time period * Jacksonian Democrats led the era of modern parties and dominated the elections of the time, winning the presidency four out of six times
Who anonymously wrote, "Constitutional government and the government of a majority are utterly incompatible"?
John C. Calhoun
When William Henry Harrison, the new Whig president, died a month after taking office, who became president and subverted the Whig agenda almost immediately?
John Tyler
Which statement reflects part of Andrew Jackson's legacy?
Making the political system more democratic
Who was the chief architect of the system of party organization that emerged in the 1820s?
Martin Van Buren
What generalization can be made about the removal of Native Americans based on this map?
Native Americans had lost almost all of their lands in the eastern states before 1820 * The fact that the Iroquois, Cherokee, and Seminole were the only tribes forced to move from the states along the Atlantic coast strongly indicates that they were the only tribes that still held substantial amounts of land in 1820. had there been any other tribes, they no doubt would have been forced west as well.
Political machines
Nineteenth-century term for highly organized groups operating within and intending to control political parties. Machines were regarded as antidemocratic by political reformers and were the target especially of Progressive-era leaders such as Robert La Follette. In municipal government, urban machines such as New York's Tammany Hall were often run by ethnic politicians; they won support from immigrant voters, who had few sources of aid in navigating the dangers of city life. Reformers instituted a merit-based civil service and primary elections to limit the power of political machines. Between 1817 and 1821, Van Buren turned his "Bucktail" supporters (so called because they wore a deer's tail on their hats) into the first statewide political machine. He purchased a newspaper, the Albany Argus, and used it to promote his policies and get out the vote.
Why did the 12th Amendment to the Constitution end up determining the election of 1824?
No one candidate received an absolute majority of electoral votes * The 12th Amendment had re-ordered the procedure for electing the president after difficulties in the 1796 and 1800 elections. It sent presidential elections to the House of Representatives if no candidate could garner an absolute majority
The "Log Cabin" Campaign
Panic and depression stacked the political cards against Van Buren, but the election turned more on style than on substance. It became the great "log cabin campaign"—the first time two well-organized parties competed for the loyalties of a mass electorate through a new style of campaigning. Whig songfests, parades, and well-orchestrated mass meetings drew new voters into politics. Whig speakers assailed "Martin Van Ruin" as a manipulative politician with aristocratic tastes—a devotee of fancy wines and elegant clothes, as indeed he was.
Why did expansion of the franchise advance the development of political parties?
Politicians had to organize their appeal to newly enfranchised voters.
Tariff of 1828
Recognizing the appeal of tariffs, Van Buren and his Jacksonian allies hopped on the bandwagon. By increasing tariffs on wool, hemp, and other imported raw materials, they hoped to win the support of wool-and hemp-producing farmers in New York, Ohio, and Kentucky for Jackson's presidential candidacy in 1828. The tariff had become a prisoner of politics. "I fear this tariff thing," remarked Thomas Cooper, the president of the College of South Carolina and an advocate of free trade. "[B]y some strange mechanical contrivance [it has become]... a machine for manufacturing Presidents, instead of broadcloths, and bed blankets." Disregarding southern protests, northern Jacksonians joined with supporters of Adams and Clay to enact the Tariff of 1828, which raised duties significantly on raw materials, textiles, and iron goods.
Political Boss
Representative for or head of the political machine; gained votes for their parties by doing favors for people.
What did the Freemasons stand for in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?
Republicanism * Freemasonry arose in 18th century Europe among men who opposed their monarchial governments and espoused republicanism
In the mid-1820s, in the midst of the expansion of suffrage in most states, what state retained property qualifications for voting?
Rhode Island
When Chief Justice John Marshall died in 1835, who did Andrew Jackson appoint to the Supreme Court?
Roger Taney
What principle did Andrew Jackson insist he was following when he replaced government bureaucrats with ordinary men who supported him politically?
Rotation of office
What group constituted most of the membership of the Whig Party in the South?
Small, independent farmers * Most Southern Whigs were yeomen whites who resented the power and policies of low-country planters, most of whom were Democrats. In addition, some Virginia and South Carolina Democrats, such as John Taylor, became Whigs because they condemned Andrew Jackson's crusade against nullification
Which group supported Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828?
Southern farmers * Jackson was a southerner at heart and a slave-owning cotton planter himself. That endeared him to southern farmers.
Many Americans blamed the depression of the late 1830s on which of President Andrew Jackson's policies that required western settlers to pay for land purchases in gold or silver coins?
Specie Circular
Webster-Hayne Debate
The "Tariff of Abominations" sparked one of the great debates in American history. When Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina (seated in the middle of the picture, with his legs crossed) opposed the federal tariffs by invoking the doctrines of states' rights and nullification, Daniel Webster rose to the defense of the Union. Speaking for two days to a spellbound Senate, Webster delivered an impassioned oration that celebrated the unity of the American people as the key to their freedom. His parting words - "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" - quickly became part of the national memory.
Indian Removal Act of 1830
The Removal Act created the Indian Territory, outside the bounds of any state (on lands in present-day Oklahoma and Kansas). It also promised money and reserved land to Native American peoples who would agree to give up their ancestral holdings east of the Mississippi River. Government officials promised the Indians that they could live on their new land, "they and all their children, as long as grass grows and water runs." But, as one Indian leader noted, in "the wilderness of the West... water and timber are scarcely to be seen." When Chief Black Hawk and his Sauk and Fox followers refused to leave rich, well-watered farmland in western Illinois in 1832, Jackson quickly sent troops to expel them. Following a series of confrontations, the U.S. Army pursued Black Hawk into the Wisconsin Territory and, in the brutal eight-hour Bad Axe Massacre, killed 850 of his 1,000 warriors. Over the next five years, American diplomatic pressure and military power forced seventy Indian peoples to sign treaties and move west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk mobilized Sauk and Fox warriors to protect their ancestral lands in Illinois. "It was here, that I was born - and here lie the bones of many friends and relatives," the aging chief declared. "I... never could consent to leave it."
The May 1838 forced expulsion of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia to the new Indian Territory is remembered by what name?
The Trail of Tears
Which political party reflected the ideology of "artisan republicanism"?
The Working Men's Party
