The Age of Jackson
John Quincy Adams
(1767-1848) Son of President John Adams and the secretary of state to James Monroe, he largely formulated the Monroe Doctrine. He was the sixth president of the United States and later became a representative in Congress.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
(1815-1902) A suffragette who, with Lucretia Mott, organized the first convention on women's rights, held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Issued the Declaration of Sentiments which declared men and women to be equal and demanded the right to vote for women. Co-founded the National Women's Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony in 1869.
The Indian Removal Act
(1830) a congressional act that authorized the removal of Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River
The battle of San Jacinto
(1836) Final battle of the Texas Revolution; resulted in the defeat of the Mexican army and independence for Texas
Martin Van Buren
(1837-1841) Advocated lower tariffs and free trade, and by doing so maintained support of the south for the Democratic party. He succeeded in setting up a system of bonds for the national debt. Got blamed for panic of 1837.
Samuel Slater
"Father of the Factory System" in America; escaped Britain with the memorized plans for the textile machinery; put into operation the first spinning cotton thread in 1791.
William Henry Harrison
(1841), was an American military leader, politician, the ninth President of the United States, and the first President to die in office. His death created a brief Constitutional crisis, but ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment. Led US forces in the Battle of Tippecanoe.
Seneca Falls Convention
(1848) the first national women's rights convention at which the Declaration of Sentiments was written
Zachary Taylor
(1849-1850), Whig president who was a Southern slave holder, and war hero (Mexican-American War). Won the 1848 election. Surprisingly did not address the issue of slavery at all on his platform. He died during his term and his Vice President was Millard Fillmore.
James Polk
11th President of the United States from Tennessee; committed to westward expansion; led the country during the Mexican War; U.S. annexed Texas and took over Oregon during his administration
The tariff of abomination
1828 - Also called Tariff of 1828, it raised the tariff on imported manufactured goods. The tariff protected the North but harmed the South; South said that the tariff was economically discriminatory and unconstitutional because it violated state's rights.
The Walker Tariff
1846 - Sponsored by Polk's Secretary of Treasury, Robert J. Walker, it lowered the tariff. It introduced the warehouse system of storing goods until duty is paid.
The Oregon Treaty
1846. Settled dispute of Oregon boundary dispute, stemming from the Treaty of 1818 in which both U.S. and British settlers were granted free navigation of the territory.
James Fenimore Cooper
1st truly American novelist noted for his stories of Indians and the frontier life; man's relationship w/ nature & westward expansion
Charle Wilson Peale
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Peter Cartwrigth
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Samuel Monroe
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The Alamo
A Spanish mission converted into a fort, it was besieged by Mexican troops in 1836. The Texas garrison held out for thirteen days, but in the final battle, all of the Texans were killed by the larger Mexican force.
What is meant by "the march of the millions?"
A continuing high birthrate accounted for most of the increase in population, but by the 1840s the tides of immigration were adding hundreds of thousands more. Before this decade immigrants had been flowing in at a rate of sixty thousand a year, but suddenly the influx tripled in the 1840s then quadrupled in the 1850s. During these two feverish decades, over a million and a half Irish, and nearly as many Germans, swarmed down the gangplanks. The immigrants came partly because Europe seemed to be running out of room. The population of the Old World more than doubled in the nineteenth century, and Europe began to generate a seething pool of apparently "surplus" people. They were displaced and footloose in their homelands before they felt the tug of the American magnet. Indeed at least as many people moved within Europe as crossed the Atlantic. America benefited from these people-churning changes but id not set them all in notion. Nor was the United States the sole beneficiary of the process: of the 60 million that left Europe in the century after 1840, 25 million went somewhere other than the US.
The Liberty Party
A former political party in the United States; formed in 1839 to oppose the practice of slavery; merged with the Free Soil Party in 1848
Manifest Destiny
A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.
Gilbert Stuart
A painter from Rhode Island who painted several portraits of Washington, creating a sort of idealized image of Washington. When Stuart was painting these portraits, the former president had grown old and lost some teeth. Stuart's paintings created an ideal image of him.
The tariff of 1832
A tariff imposed by Jackson which was unpopular in the South; South Carolina nullified it, but Jackson pushed through the Force Act, which enabled him to make South Carolina comply through force; Henry Clay reworked the tariff so that South Carolina would accept it, but after accepting it, South Carolina also nullified the Force Act
The Pet Banks
A term used by Jackson's opponents to describe the state banks that the federal government used for new revenue deposits in an attempt to destroy the Second Bank of the United States; the practice continued after the charter for the Second Bank expired in 1836. Jackson knew the private bank owners.
What three "revolutions" occurred in the mid-19th century?
A third revolution accompanied the reformation of American politics and the transformation of the American economy in the mid-19th century. This was a diffuse yet deeply felt commitment to improve the character of ordinary Americans, to make them more upstanding, God-fearing, and literate. Some high-minded souls were disillusioned by the rough-and-tumble realities of democratic politics. Other, notably women, were excluded from the political game altogether. As the young Republic grew, increasing numbers of Americans poured their considerable energies into religious revivals and reform movements. Reform campaigns of all types flourished in sometimes bewildering abundance.
What was the impact of the cotton gin?
After graduating from Yale, Massachusetts-born Eli Whitney journeyed to Georgia to serve as a private tutor while preparing for the law. There he was told that the poverty of the South would be relieved if someone could only invent a workable device for separating the seed from the short=staple cotton fiber. Within ten days, in 1793, he built a crude machine called the cotton gin that was fifty times more effective than the handpicking process. Few machines have ever wrought so wondrous a change. The gin affected not only the history of America but that of the world. Almost overnight the raising of cotton became highly profitable, and the South was tied hand and foot o the throne of King Cotton. human bondage of had been dying out, but the insatiable demand for cotton reriveted the chains on the limbs of the downtrodden southern blacks. South and North both prospered. Slave-driving planters cleared more acres for cotton, pushing the Cotton Kingdom westward off the depleted tide-water plains, over the Piedmont, and onto the black loam bottomlands of Alabama and Mississippi. Humming gins poured out of avalanches of snowy fiber for the spindles of the Yankee machines, though for decades to come the mills of Britain bought the lion's share of southern cotton. The American phase of the Industrial Revolution was well on its way. Factories at first flourished most actively in New England, though they branched out into the more populous areas of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The South, increasingly wedded to the production of cotton, could boast of comparatively little manufacturing. ITs capital was bound up in slaves; its local consumers for the most part were desperately poor.
How were "the fruits" of the Mexican War "enormous"?
America's total expanse, already vast, was increased by about one third (counting Texas)-an addition even greater than that of the Louisiana Purchase. A sharp stimulus was given to the spirit of Manifest Destiny. As fate ordained, the Mexican War was the blood-spattered schoolroom of the Civil War. The campaigns provided priceless field experience for most of the officers destined to become leading generals in the forthcoming conflict. Useful also was the Navy, which did valuable work i throwing a crippling blockade around Mexican ports. The US army waged war without defeat and without a major blunder, despite formidable obstacles and long marches. Foreign countries revised upward their estimates for US military prowess. Opposing armies, moreover, emerged with increased respect for each other. The war also marked an ugly turning point in the relations between the US and Latin America as a whole. Before the war, the US was regard with some complacency, After the war, it condemned as a greedy and untrustworthy bully, who might next despoil them of their soil. Most ominous of all, the war rearoused the snarling dog of the slavery issue, and the beast did not stop yelping until drowned in the blood of the Civil War. Quarreling over slavery extension erupted both between abolitionists and other citizens and between those in Congress.
John Trumbull
American artist and painter who painted four panels in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington: The Declaration of Independence, The Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and The Resignation of General Washington.
John Deere
American blacksmith that was responsible for inventing the steel plow. This new plow was much stronger than the old iron version; therefore, it made plowing farmland in the west easier, making expansion faster.
Robert Fulton
American inventor who designed the first commercially successful steamboat and the first steam warship (1765-1815)
What upsurge after the war of 1812 affected American painting and literature?
American painters of portraits turned increasingly from human landscapes to romantic mirroring's of local landscapes. A genuinely American literature received a strong boost from the wave of nationalism that followed the war of independence and especially the war of 1812. jobs such as tree chopping and butter churning were removed so that literature could be supported as a profession.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American transcendentalist who was against slavery and stressed self-reliance, optimism, self-improvement, self-confidence, and freedom. He was a prime example of a transcendentalist and helped further the movement.
Washington Irving
American writer remembered for the stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," contained in The Sketch Book (1819-1820).
Noah Webster
American writer who wrote textbooks to help the advancement of education. He also wrote a dictionary which helped standardize the American language.
The Oregon Country
Aquired 1846. 49th parallel established by US and Britain as Boundary for Oregon
Utah
Big on being Mormon?
What did the two parties have in common, and what were its consequences?
Both national parties grew out of the rich sol of Jeffersonian republicanism, and each laid claim to different aspects of the republican inheritance. But they also had much in common. Both were mass-based, "catchall" parties that tried deliberately to mobilize as many voters as possible for their cause. Although it is true that the Democrats tended to be more humble folk and the Whigs more prosperous, both parties nevertheless commanded the loyalties of all kinds of Americans, from all social classes and in all sections. The social diversity of the two parties had important implication. It fostered horse-trading compromise within each party that prevented either from assuming extreme or radical positions. By the same token, the geographical diversity of the two parties retarded the emergence of purely sectional political parties-temporarily suppressing, through compromise, the ultimately uncompromisable issue of slaver. When the two-party system began to creak in the 1850s, the Union was mortally imperiled.
How did Jacksonian Democracy help the workers?
By contrast, the lot of most adult wage workers full flush of Jacksonian democracy, many of the states granted the laboring man the vote. Brandishing the ballot, he first strove to lighten his burden though workingmen's parties. Eventually many workers gave their loyalty to the Democratic party of Andrew Jackson, whose attack on the BUS and against all forms of "privilege" reflected their anxieties about the emerging capitalist economy. in addition to such goals as the ten-hour day, higher wages, and tolerable working conditions, they demanded public education for their children and an end to the inhuman practice if imprisonment for debt. The Supreme court of Massachusetts ruled in the case of Commonwealth vs Hunt that labor unions were not illegal conspiracies, provided that their methods were "honorable and peaceful."
Unitarianism
Christian doctrine that stresses individual freedom of belief and rejects the Trinity
The mormons
Church founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, religious group that emphasized moderation, saving, hard work, and risk-taking; moved from IL to UT
The Rio Grande
Claimed by United States as southern boundary of Texas.
What brought about the women's movement?
Clamorous female reformers began to gather strength as the century nerd it's halfway point. While demanding rights for women, they joined in the general reform movement of the age, fighting for temperance and the abolition of slavery.
Utopias
Communities founded by reformers and transcendentalists to help realize their spiritual and moral potential and to escape from the competition of modern industrial society.
David Wilmot
Congressman who proposed the amendment that would have outlawed slavery from Mexican territories
Why did pupils education expand during this period?
Conservatives paid for public education so that the lower classes could grow up into well educated citizens who werent dangerous or ignorant.
How was the temperance movement driven by the period?
Custom, combined with a hard and monotonous life, led to the excessive drinking of hard liquor, even among women, clergyman, and members of Congress.
What were the tenets of the Democrats and the Whigs?
Democrats- Jacksonian Democrats glorified the liberty of the individual and were fiercely on guard against the inroads of "privilege" into government. Democrats clung to the states' rights and federal restraint in social and economic affairs as their basic doctrines. Whigs- Whigs trumpeted the natural harmony of society and the value of community, and were willing to use the government to realize their objectives. Whigs also berated those leaders-and they considered Jackson to be one-whose appeals to self-interest forested conflict among individuals, classes, or sections. Whig tended to favor a renewed national bank, protective tariffs, internal improvements, public schools, and, increasingly, moral reforms such as the prohibition of liquor and eventually the abolition of slavery.
Henry Clay
Distinguished senator from Kentucky, who ran for president five times until his death in 1852. He was a strong supporter of the American System, a war hawk for the War of 1812, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and known as "The Great Compromiser." Outlined the Compromise of 1850 with five main points. Died before it was passed however.
Why were 19th century Americans more interested in practical gadgets than in pure science?
Early Americans, confronted with pioneering problems, or more interested in practical gadgets than in pure science.
Daniel Webster
Famous American politician and orator. he advocated renewal and opposed the financial policy of Jackson. Many of the principles of finance he spoke about were later incorporated in the Federal Reserve System. Would later push for a strong union.
Why was the Industrial Revolution tardy in reaching the United States?
For one thing, virgin soil in America was cheap. Land=starved descendants of land-staved peasants were not going to coop themselves up in smelly factories when the mighty till their own acres in God's fresh air and sunlight. Labor was therefore generally scarce, and enough nimble hands to operate the machines were hard to fins-until immigrants began to pour ashore in the 1840s. Money for capital investment, moreover, was not plentiful in pioneering America. Raw materials lay undeveloped, undiscovered, or unsuspected. Long-established British factories, which provided cutthroat competition, posed another problem. Their superiority was attested by the fact that a few unscrupulous Yankee manufacturers, out to make a dishonest dollar, stamped their own products with fake English trademarks. The British also enjoyed a monopoly of the textile industry, whose secrets they were anxious to hide from foreign competitors. Parliament enacted laws, in harmony with the mercantile system, forbidding the export of the machines or the emigration of mechanics able to produce them.
Joseph Smith
Founded Mormonism in New York in 1830 with the guidance of an angel. 1843, Smith's announcement that God sanctioned polygamy split the Mormons and let to an uprising against Mormons in 1844; translated the Book of Mormon and died a martyr.
Hudson River School
Founded by Thomas Cole, first native school of landscape painting in the U.S.; attracted artists rebelling against the neoclassical tradition, painted many scenes of New York's Hudson River
John Audubon
French-American naturalist who was known for his paintings of wild birds in their natural surroundings, best known for his work Birds of America.
Under what handicaps did Van Buren suffer?
From the outset the new president labored severe handicaps. As a machine-made candidate, he incurred the resentment of many Democrats- those who objected to having a "bastard politician" smuggled into office beneath the tails of Jackson. Jackson had been a dynamic type of executive whose administration has resounded with furious quarrels and cracked heads. Mild-mannered Buren seemed to rattle about in the military boots of his testy predecessor. The people felt let down. Inheriting Andrew Jackson's mantle without his popularity, Van Buren also inherited the ex-president's numerous and vengeful enemies. Van Buren's four years overflowed with toil and trouble. A rebellion in Canada in 1837 stirred up ugly incidents along the northern frontier and threatened to trigger war with Britain. The president's attempt to play a neutral game led to the wail, "Woe to Martin Van Buren!" The antislavery agitators in the North were in full cry. Among other grievances, they were the condemning the prospective annexation of Texas. Worst of all, Jackson bequeathed to Van Buren the makings of a searing depression. Much of Van Buren's energy had to be devoted to the purely negative task of battling the panic, and there were not enough rabbits in the "Little Magician's" tall silk hat. Hard times ordinarily blight the reputation of a president, and Van Buren was no exception.
Describe the conditions of the depression.
Hardship was acute and widespread. American banks collapsed by the hundreds, including some "pet banks," which carried down with them several millions in government funds, Commodity prices drooped, sales of public lands fell off, and customs revenues dried ti a rivulet, Factories closed their doors, and unemployed workers milled in the streets.
George Bancroft
He was the secretary of the navy. Took part in the founding of Annapolis naval academy. The Father of American history because he published six volumes of US history showing patriotism and nationalism.
Cyrus Feild
His company put down trans-cable which put communications under the ocean so countries could communicate to each other.
John C. Calhoun
In 1828, he lead the fight against protective tariffs which hurt the south economically. Created the doctrine of nullification which said that a state could decide if a law was constitutional. This situation became known as the Nullification Crisis.
How did the slave issue "ironically" affect the outcome of he election of 1844?
In the stretch drive, Polk beat Clay. Clay would have won if he had not lost New York State by a scant 5,000 votes. here the tiny antislavery Liberty party absorbed nearly 16,000 votes, many of which would otherwise have gone to Clay. Ironically, the anti-Texas Liberty party, by spoiling Clay's chances and helping to ensure the election of pro-Texas Polk, hastened the annexation of Texas.
How did farming change?
Ingenious inventors came to the aid of westerner farmers. One of the first obstacles that frustrated the farmers was the thickly matted soil of the West, which snagged and snapped fragile wooden plows. John Deere of Illinois in 1837 finally produced a steel plow that broke the virgin soil. Sharp and effective, it was also light enough to be pulled by horses, rather than oxen. In the 1830s Virginia-born Cyrus McCormick contributed the most wondrous contraption of all: a mechanical mower-reaper. The clattering cogs of McCormick's horse-drawn machine were to the western farmers what the cotton gin was to the southern planters. Seated on his red-chariot reaper, a single husbandman could do the work of five men with sickles and scythes. No other American invention cut so wide a swath.. IT made ambitious capitalists out of humble plowmen, who now scrambled for more acres on which to plant more fields of billowing wheat. Subsistence farming gave way to production-for the market, as large-scale ("extensive") specialized, cash-crop agriculture came to dominate the trans-Allegheny West. With it followed mounting indebtedness, as farmers bought more land and more machinery to work it. Soon hustling farmer-business people were annually harvesting a larger crop than the south-which was becoming self-sufficient in food production-could devour.
Cyrus McCormick
Irish-American inventor that developed the mechanical reaper. The reaper replaced scythes as the preferred method of cutting crops for harvest, and it was much more efficient and much quicker. The invention helped the agricultural growth of America.
The Specie Circular
Issued by Jackson - attempt to stop states from speculating land with money they printed that was not backed by anything - required land speculation in speci; Provided that in payment for public lands, the government would accept only gold or silver
Describe the second Great Awakening
It was a reaction against the growing liberalism and religion that began on the southern frontier but soon went to the north east. Had more people than the first great awakening, and was spread to the masses on the frontier by huge camp meetings. It introduced a relatively democratic control of church affairs, and a rousing emotionalism. Middle class women were the first and most fervent enthusiast of religious revivalism.
How did Jackson's victory in the election of 1828 show that the "political center of gravity" had shifted, and how did it show enhanced sectionalism?
Jackson's strongest support came from the West and South. The middle states and the Old Northwest were divide, while Adams won the backing of his own New England and the propertied "better elements" of the Northeast. Jackson won the electoral college with 178 to 83. Although a considerable part of Jackson's support was lined up by machine politicians in eastern cities, the political center of gravity clearly had shifted away from the conservative eastern seaboard toward the emerging states across the mountains.
How did Jackson's BUS veto "reverberate with constitutional consequences"?
Jackson's veto message reverberated with constitutional consequences. It not only squashed the bank bill but vastly amplified the power of the presidency (IT was declared constitutional in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, but Jackson acted as thought the executive branch was superior to the judicial branch). All previous vetoes had rested almost exclusively on questions of constitutionality, but though Jackson invoked the Constitution in his bank-veto message, he essentially argued that he was vetoing the bill because he personally found it harmful to the nation. In effect, he was claiming for the president alone a power equivalent to two-thirds of the votes in Congress. If the legislative and executive were partners in government, he implied, the president was unmistakably the senior partner.
The election of 1844
Main debate over Texas. Whigs nominate Henry Clay and democrats nominate James Polk. Polk says he will annex Texas and Oregon to make both sides happy. Polk was elected
Lone Star Republic
Nickname for Texas after it won independence from Mexico in 1836
The lone star republic
Nickname for Texas after it won independence from Mexico in 1836
"King Mob"
Nickname for all the new participants in government that came with Jackson's presidency. This nickname was negative and proposed that Jackson believed in too much democracy, perhaps leading to anarchy.
The Cotton Kingdom
Nickname given to the American South after Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin allowed it to produce massive amounts of cotton (and become wholly reliant on slave labor)
Neal Dow
Nineteenth century temperance activist, dubbed the "Father of Prohibition" for his sponsorship of the Maine Law of 1851, which prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol in the state.
The Wilmot Provision
No Slavery in territory acquired from Mexico or any future territory in the future. Was one of the major events leading up the Civil War.
The Oneida Community
One of the more radical utopian communities established in the nineteenth century, it advocated "free love," birth control, and eugenics. Utopian communities reflected the reformist spirit of the age.
What was the "ugly outgrowth" of the factory system?
One ugly outgrowth of the factory system was an increasingly acute labor problem. Hitherto manufacturing had been done in the home, or in the small shop, where the master and his apprentice shared the same workspace and maintain an intimate and friendly relationship. The industrial revolution submerged this personal association in the impersonal ownership of stuffy factories in "spindle cities." Around these, like tumors, the slumlike hovels of the "wage slaves" tended to cluster. Clearly the early factory system did not shower its benefits evenly on all. While many owners waxed fat, working people often wasted away at their workbenches. Hours were long, wages were low, and meals were skimpy and hastily gulped. Workers were forced to toil in unsanitary buildings that were poorly ventilated, lighted, and heated. They were forbidden by law to form labor unions to raise wages, for such cooperative activity was regarded as a criminal conspiracy. Not surprisingly, only 24 recorded strikes occurred before 1835. especially vulnerable to exploitation were child workers. in half of the nation's industrial toilers were children under the age of ten. Victims of factory labor, many children were mentally blighted, emotionally starved, physically stunted, and even brutally whipped in special "whipping rooms."
Railroad Expansion
Played a major role in the industrialization of the United States and the occupancy and upbringing of new settlements West.
The American ("Know-Nothing) Party
Political organization that was created after the election of 1852 by the Know-Nothings, was organized to oppose the great wave of immigrants who entered the United States after 1846
What were the sources of contention between the United States and Mexico?
Polk (the US) was eager to buy California from Mexico, but relations with Mexico City were dangerously embittered. Among other friction points, the United States had claims against the Mexicans for some $3 million in damages against American citizens and their property. A more serious bone of contention was Texas. The Mexican government, after threatening war if the United States should acquire Texas, had recalled its minister from Washington following annexation. Diplomatic relations were completely severed. Deadlock with Mexico over Texas was further tightened by a question of boundaries. During the long era of Spanish-Mexican occupation, the south-western boundary of Texas had been the Nueces River. But the expansive Texans, on rather far-fetched ground, were claiming the more southerly Rio Grande. Polk felt a strong moral obviation to defend Texas.
What was Polk's four-point program, and how successful was he in effecting it?
Polk developed a positive four-point program and with remarkable success achieved it completely in less than four years. One of Polk's goals was a lowered tariff. His secretary of the Treasury, Robert J. Walker, devised a tariff-for-revenue bill that reduced the average rates of the Tariff of 1832 from 32 percent to 25 percent. South supported the reduction, North said it would ruin manufacturing. The Walker Tariff of 1846 proved to be an excellent revenue producer, largely because it was followed by a boom times and heavy imports. A second objective of Polk was the restoration of the independent treasury, dropped by the Whigs in 1841. Pro-bank Whigs in Congress opposed it, but victory at last rewarded the president's efforts on 1846. The third and fourth points on Polk's goals were the acquisition of California and the settlement of the Oregon dispute. Although Polk would only obtain Oregon Country from the 49 degrees North instead of 54 degrees and 40 minutes and was criticized by northwestern states, he accomplished getting a reasonable compromise without a rifle being raised. After various battles, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 was signed between the US and Mexico. The terms of the treaty confirmed the American title to Texas and yielded the area stretching westward to Oregon and the ocean and embracing the coveted California. America agreed to pay $15 million for the land and assume the claims of its citizens against Mexico in the amount of $3,250,000.
What were Jackson's arguments against the BUS?
President Jackson distrusted monopolistic banking and overbig businesses. The national government minted gold and silver coins in the mid-nineteenth century but did not issue paper money. Paper notes were printed by the private banks. Their value fluctuated with the health of the bank and the amount of money printed, giving private bankers considerable power over the nation's economy. But the BUS was a private institution, accountable not to the people, but to its elite circle of moneyed investors. To some the bank's very existence seemed a sin against the egalitarian credo of American democracy. The conviction formed the deepest source of Jackson's opposition. The bank also won no friends in the West by foreclosing on many western farms and draining "tribute" into eastern coffers. Profit, not public service, was its first priority.
Nicholas Biddle
President of the Second Bank of the United States; he struggled to keep the bank functioning when President Jackson tried to destroy it.
Turnpikes
Privately built roads that charged a fee to travelers who used them
The "Corrupt Bargain"
Refers to the presidential election of 1824 in which Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, convinced the House of Representatives to elect Adams rather than Jackson.
John C. Fremont
Republican presidential candidate in 1856
Dorothea Dix
Rights activist on behalf of mentally ill patients - created first wave of US mental asylums
The Nueces River
River that Mexico claimed as the Texas-Mexico boundary, crossed by Taylor's troops in 1846
Horace Mann
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education; "Father of the public school system"; a prominent proponent of public school reform, & set the standard for public schools throughout the nation; lengthened academic year; pro training & higher salaries to teachers
Why did the South so vehemently oppose tariffs?
Southerners, as heavy consumers of manufactured goods with little manufacturing industry of their own, were hostile to tariffs. They were particularly shocked by what they regarded as the outrageous rates of the Tariff of 1828. Southerners believed the "Yankee tariff" discriminated against them. Everyone else was doing well economically, but the Old South was falling on hard times, and the tariff provided a convenient and plausible scapegoat. Protectionism protected Yankee and middle-state manufactures. So the tariff was the issue, and the south wanted to take a strong stand on principle against all federal encroachments on states' rights.
How was the experience of the Irish immigrants different from that of the Germans?
Tens of thousands of Irish immigrants fled to the United States in the 1840's after a terrible rot attacked the potato crop and left 2 million dead when it was over. These uprooted newcomers-too poor to move west and buy the necessary land, livestock, and equipment-swarmed into larger seaboard cities. The luckless Irish immigrants received no red-carpet treatment. Forced to live in squalor, they were rudely crammed in the the already vile slums. They were scorned by the older American stock, especially Protestant Bostonian, who regarded the Catholic arrivals as a social menace. "Biddies" (women) took jobs as kitchen maids and similar jobs. "Paddies" (men) were pushed into pick-and-shovel drudgery on canals and railroads, where thousands left their bones as victims of disease and accidental explosions. As wage-depressing competitors for jobs, the Irish were hated by native workers. "No Irish Need Apply" was a sign commonly posted in factory gates. The Irish, for similar reasons, fiercely resented the blacks. Race riots between black and Irish dockworkers flared up in several port cities, and the Irish were generally cool to the abolitionist cause. The friendless "famine Irish" were forced to fend for themselves. The Ancient Order of Hibernians aided the downtrodden Irish. The Irish tended to remain in low-skill occupations but gradually improved their lot, usually by acquiring modest amounts of property. The education of children was cut short as families struggled to save money to purchase a home. Politics quickly attracted these gregarious Gaelic newcomers. They soon began to gain control of powerful city machines, notably New York's Tammany Hall, and reaped the patronage rewards. Before long, beguilingly brogued Irishmen dominated police departments in many big cities, where they now drove the "Paddy wagons" that had once carted their forebears. American politicians made haste to cultivate the Irish vote, especially in the politically potent state of New York. The influx of refugees from Germany between 1830 and 1860 was hardly less spectacular than that from Ireland. The bulk of the 1.5 million German immigrants were uprooted farmers, displace by crop failures and other hardships. But a strong sprinkling were liberal political refugees. Unlike the Irish, many of the Germanic newcomers possessed a modest amount of material goods. Most of them pushed out to the lush lands of the Middle West. Like the Irish, they formed an influential body of voters whom American politicians shamelessly wooed. But the Germans were less potent politically because their straighten was more widely scattered. Better educated on the whole than the stump-grubbing Americans, they warmly supported public schools, including their Kindergarten. they likewise did much to stimulate art and music. As outspoken champions of freedom, they became relentless enemies of slavery during the fevered years before the civil war
How was the potential annexation of Texas related to the slave issue?
Territorial expansion dominated American diplomacy and politics in the 1840s. The clamor to annex Texas to the Union provoked bitter tension with Mexico, which continued to regard Texas as a Mexican province in revolt. And when Americans began casting covetous eyes on Mexico's northern-most province, the great prize of California, open warfare erupted between the United States and Mexico. Victory over Mexico added vast new domains to the United States, but it also raised thorny questions about the status of slavery in the newly acquired territories-questions that would be answered in blood in the Civil War of the 1860s.
The annexation of texas
Texas decides to secede from Mexico and attempts to declare its independence which eventually leads to our adoption of the land as a state although it was feared that it would cause conflict with mexico leading to war. Southern states in support of this as Texas brought slaves with it meaning it would increase agricultural profits
The Trail of Tears
The Cherokee Indians were forced to leave their lands. They traveled from North Carolina and Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas-more than 800 miles (1,287 km)-to the Indian Territory. More than 4,000 Cherokees died of cold, disease, and lack of food during the 116-day journey.
Trace the movement of the "demographic center"
The Republic was young, and so were the people- as late as 1850, half of Americans were under the age of thirty. They were also restless and energetic, seemingly always on the move, and always westward. By 1840 the "demographic center" of the American population map had crossed the Alleghenies. By the eve of the Civil War, it had marched across the Ohio River.
What groups supported the Whigs, and what did the Whigs call for?
The Whig party contained many diverse elements. Hatred of Jackson and his "executive usurpation" was its only apparent cement in its formative days. The Whigs first emerged as an identifiable group in the Senate, where Clay, Webster, and Calhoun joined forces in 1834 to pass a motion censuring Jackson for his single-handed removal of federal deposits from the BUS. Thereafter, the Whigs rapidly evolved into a potent national political force by attracting other groups alienated by Jackson: supporters of Clay's American System, southern states' righters offended by Jackson's stand on nullification, the larger northern industrialists and merchants, and eventual many of the evangelical Protestants associated with the Anti-Masonic party.
What remedies did the Whigs propose for the depression?
The Whigs came forward with proposals for active government remedies for the economy's ills. The called for the expansion of bank credit, higher tariffs, and subsidies for internal improvements. But Van Buren, shackled by the Jacksonian philosophy of keeping the government's paw off the economy, spurned all such ideas.
How did the Whigs turn the tables in the Democrats in the campaign of 1840?
The Whigs, eager to avoid offense, published no official platform, hoping to sweep their hero (William Henry Harrison) into the office with a frothy huzza-for-Harrison campaign reminiscent of Jackson's triumph in 1828. A dull-witted Democratic editor played directly into Whig hands. Stupidly insulting the West, he lampooned Harrison as an impoverished old farmer who should be content with a pension, a log cabin, an a barrel of hard cider- the poor westerner's champagne. Whigs gleefully adopted honest hard cider and the sturdy log cabin as symbols of their campaign. Harrisonites portrayed their hero as the poor "Farmer of the North Bend," who had been called from his cabin and his plow to drive corrupt Jackson spoilsmen from the "presidential palace." They denounced Van Buren as a supercilious aristocrat, a simpering dandy who wore corsets and ate French food from golden plates. The Whig campaign was a master piece of inane hoopla. Log cabins were dished up in every conceivable form.
What was Van Buren's remedy for the depression, and what were its effects?
The beleaguered Van Buren tried to apply vintage Jacksonian medicine to he ailing economy through his controversial :Divorce Bill." Convinced that some of the financial fever was fed by the injection of federal funds into private banks, he championed the principle of "divorcing" the government from banking altogether. By establishing a so-called independent treasury, the government could lock its surplus money in vaults in several of the larger cities. Government funds would thus be safe, but they would also be denied to the banking system as reserves, thereby shriveling available credit resources. The "divorce" scheme was never highly popular. His fellow Democrats, many of whom longed for the risky but lush days of the "pet banks," supported it only lukewarmly. The Whigs condemned i, primarily because it squelched their hope for the revived BUS. It was established for 1840, was repealed, then reenacted in 1846 and continued until merged with the Federal Reserve System in the next century.
What ideals were "conveniently conjoined" by the Democrats in the election of 1844?
The campaign of 1844 was in part an expression of the mighty emotional upsurge known as Manifest Destiny. Countless citizens in the 1840s and 1850s, feeling a sense of mission, believed that Almighty God had "manifestly" destined the American people for a hemispheric career. They would irresistibly spread their uplifting and ennobling democratic institutions over at least the entire continent, and possibly over South America as well. Land greed and ideals- "empire" and "liberty"-were thus conveniently conjoined. Expansionist Democrats were strongly swayed by the intoxicating spell of Manifest Destiny.
What did e election of 1840 "conclusively demonstrate"?
The election of 1840 conclusively demonstrated two major changes in American politics since the Era of Good Feelings. The first was the triumph of a populist democratic style. Democracy had been something of a taint in the days of the lordly Federalists. But by the 1840s, aristocracy was the taint, and democracy was respectable. Politicians were now forced to unbend and curry favor with the voting masses. In truth, most high political offices continued to be filled by "leading citizens." But now these wealthy and prominent men had o forsake all social pretensions and cultivate the common touch of they hoped to win elections. The common man was at last moving to the center of the national political stage. The second dramatic change resulting from the 1840 election was the formation of a vigorous and durable two-party system; by 1840 political parties had fully come of age after the Era of Good Feelings, a lasting legacy of Andrew Jackson's tenaciousness.
The National Road
The first highway built by the federal government. Constructed during 1825-1850, it stretched from Pennsylvania to Illinois. It was a major overland shipping route and an important connection between the North and the West.
What caused nativism?
The invasion by the so-called immigrant "rable" in the 1840s and 1850s inflamed the prejudices of American "nativists." They feared these foreign hordes would outbreed, outvote, and overwhelm the old "native" stock. Not only did the newcomers take jobs from the "native" Americans, but the bulk of the displaced Irish were Roman Catholics, as were a substantial minority of the Germans. the Church of Rome was still widely regarded by many of the old-line Americans as a "foreign" church; convents were commonly referred to as "popish brothels." By 1840 Roman Catholicism was the fifth biggest religious group. By 1850 it became and remained the biggest religious group due t the immigration. The noisier"nativists" developed in 1849 the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, which soon developed into the formidable American, or "Know-Nothing," party. Occasional mass violence occurred between Catholics and non Catholics, such the event in Philadelphia in 1844 when two churches were burnt, 13 citizens died, and fifty were wounded. These outbursts of intolerance remain an unfortunate blot on the record of America's treatment of minority groups.
How did the second great awakening stimulate the reform movement?
The optimistic promises of the second great awakening inspired countless souls to do battle against earthly evils. These modern idealist dreamed a new of the old Puritan vision of a perfected society. Women were particularly prominent in these reform crusades, especially in their own struggle for suffrage.
What were the fundamental causes of the Panic of 1837?
The panic of 1837 was a symptom of the financial sickness of the times. Its basic cause was rampant speculation prompted by a mania of get-rich-quickisms. Gamblers in western lands were doing a "land-office business" on borrowed capital, much of it in the shaky currency of "wildcat banks." The speculative craze spread to canals, roads, railroads, and slaves. But speculation alone did not cause the crash. Jacksonian finance, including the Bank War and the Specie Circular, gave an additional jolt o an already teetering structure. Failures of wheat crops deepened the distress. The panic really began before Jackson left office, but its full fury burst about Van Buren's bewildered head. Financial stringency abroad likewise endangered America's economic house of cards. Late in 1836 the failure of two prominent British banks created tremors, and these in turn caused British investors t call in foreign loans. The resulting pinch in the United States, combined with other setbacks, heralded the beginning of the panic. Europe's economic distresses have often become America's distresses, for every major American financial panic has been affected by conditions overseas.
What did the rise of Andrew Jackson exemplify?
The rise of Andrew Jackson, the first president from beyond the Appalachian Mountains, exemplified the inexorable westward march of the American people. The West, with its raw frontier, was the most typically American part of America.
Andrew Jackson
The seventh President of the United States (1829-1837), who as a general in the War of 1812 defeated the British at New Orleans (1815). As president he opposed the Bank of America, objected to the right of individual states to nullify disagreeable federal laws, and increased the presidential powers.
How was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo "breathtaking?"
The terms confined the American title to Texas and yielded the enormous area stretching westward o Oregon and the ocean and embracing coveted California. This total expanse, including Texas, was about one-half of Mexico. The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the land and to assume the claim of its citizens against Mexico in the amount of $3.25 million.
How was immigration related to the economy?
The vigorous growth of the American economy in these years both attracted immigrants i the first place and ensured that, once arrived, they could claim their share of American wealth without jeopardizing the wealth of others. Their hands and brains, in fact, helped fuel economic expansion. Immigrants and the American economy, in short, needed one another. Without the newcomers, a preponderantly agricultural United States might well have been condemned to watch in envy as the Industrial Revolution swept through the 19th century Europe.
Describe transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a form of American literature that draws on the ideas of romanticism which state that every human has an inner light that leads toward greater knowledge and understanding. The test is whether or not each human chooses to use their inner light
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and California in exchange for $15 million
What effect on the nation and the economy did the "transportation revolution" and "market revolution" have?
Truly revolutionary changes in commerce and communications came in the three decades before the Civil War, as canals and railroad tracks radiated out from the East across the Alleghenies and into the blossoming heartland. The ditch-diggers and tie-layers were attempting nothing less than a conquest of nature itself. They would offset the "natural" flow of trade on the interior rivers by laying down an impressive gird of "internal improvements." The builders succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The Mississippi was increasingly robbed of its traffic, as goods moved eastward on chugging trains, puffing lake boats, and mule-tugged canal barges. By the eve of the Civil War, a truly continental economy had emerged. The principle of division of labor, which spelled productivity and profits in the factory, applied on a national scale as well. Each region now specialized in a particular type of economic activity. The South raised cotton for export to New England and Britain; the West grew grain and livestock to feed the factory workers in the East and in Europe; the East made machines and textiles for the South and the West. The economic pattern thus woven had fateful political and military implications for the South in the Civil War. No less revolutionary than the political upheaval of the antebellum era was the "market revolution" that transformed a subsistence economy of scattered farms and tiny workshops into a national network of industry and commerce. As more and more Americans linked their economic fate to the burgeoning market economy, the self-sufficient house-hols of colonial days had transformed. The home itself grew into a place of refuge from the world of work, a refuge that became increasingly the special and separate sphere of women. Revolutionary advances in manufacturing and transportation brought increased prosperity to all Americans, but they also widened the gulf between the rich and the poor. Cities bred the extremes of economic equality. Yet America, with its dynamic society and wide-open spaces, undoubtedly provided more "opportunity" than did the contemporary countries of the Old World. Moreover, a rising tide lifts all boats, and the improvement in overall standards of living was real. Te general prosperity helped defuse the potential class conflict that might have otherwise exploded.
How was the spoils system an "important element?"
Under Jackson the spoils system-that is, rewarding political supporters with public offices- was introduced into the federal government on a large scale. But despite its undeniable abuse, the spoil system was an important element of the emerging two-party order, cementing as it did loyalty to party over competing claims based on economic lass or geographic region. The promise of patronage provided a compelling reason for the Americans to pick a party and stick with it through thick and thin
Denmark Vesey
United States freed slave and insurrectionist in South Carolina who was involved in planning an uprising of slaves and was hanged (1767-1822)
Winfield Scott
United States general who was a hero of the War of 1812 and who defeated Santa Anna in the Mexican War (1786-1866)
Eli Whitney
United States inventor of the mechanical cotton gin (1765-1825)
Brigham Young
United States religious leader of the Mormon Church after the assassination of Joseph Smith
The panic of 1837
When Jackson was president, many state banks received government money that had been withdrawn from the Bank of the U.S. These banks issued paper money and financed wild speculation, especially in federal lands. Jackson issued the Specie Circular to force the payment for federal lands with gold or silver. Many state banks collapsed as a result. A panic ensued (1837). Bank of the U.S. failed, cotton prices fell, businesses went bankrupt, and there was widespread unemployment and distress.
The Anti-Masonic Party
a 19th century minor political party in the United States. It strongly opposed Freemasonry, and was founded as a single-issue party, aspiring to become a major party
Robert Owen
a Utopian who set up a model community at his cotton mill in Scotland
Cotton gin
a machine that removed seeds from cotton fiber
The "Burned-over district"
area of New York State along the Erie Canal that was constantly aflame with revivalism and reform; as wave after wave to fervor broke over the region, groups such as the Mormons, Shakers, and Millerites found support among the residents.
John Tyler
elected Vice President and became the 10th President of the United States when Harrison died 1841-1845, President responsible for annexation of Mexico after receiving mandate from Polk, opposed many parts of the Whig program for economic recovery
Oberlin College
first college to teach women and African Americans
The "transportation revolution"
rapid growth in the speed and convenience of transportation; in the United States this began in the early 1800s
Susan B. Anthony
social reformer who campaigned for womens rights, the temperance, and was an abolitionist, helped form the National Woman Suffrage Assosiation
William McGuffey
the author of a children's reading series used in America in the 1800s
The "Market Revolution"
the major change in the US economy produced by people's beginning to buy and sell goods rather than make them for themselves. Was previously a command economy, but now make a surplus.
The Spoils System
the system of employing and promoting civil servants who are friends and supporters of the group in power
William Henry Harrison
was an American military leader, politician, the ninth President of the United States, and the first President to die in office. His death created a brief constitutional crisis, but ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment. Led US forces in the Battle of Tippecanoe.