DEMOCRATIZATION, 1824-1844

Democratization of U.S. politics

• elimination of the property requirement at the state level
  • examples
    • Kentucky(1792)
    • Tennessee(1796)
    • Indiana(1816)
    • Illinois(1818)
    • Alabama(1819)
• greater participation in politics
  • 1824 presidential election - over 350,000
  • 1828 presidential election - over 1.1 million

Second American Party System

• *Whigs
  • preceded by the *National Republicans
  • political tradition: Federalists
  • stands
    • favored the exercise of national power
    • sought establishment of a U.S. bank
    • sought internal improvements and high tariffs
    • favored reform of the nation according to its philosophy
  • primary sources of support
    • regions: "New England, Middle Atlantic, Upper Midwest"
    • class: "Big southern planters and wealthy businessmen, pockets of middling farmers in Midwest and South, artisans"
    • religion: "Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Quakers, moralists, reformers"
  • leaders
    • John Quincy Adams
      • 1828 National Republican presidential candidate
    • *Henry Clay
      • *American System
        • development of economic ties between the East and the West
        • protective tariffs
        • federal funding of internal improvements
        • establishment of a new national bank

*Democrats

• political tradition: Democratic-Republicans
• stands
  • favored state and local autonomy
  • favored low land prices and low tariffs
  • opposed monopoly & privilege
  • favored leaving people alone
• primary sources of support
  • regions: the South and the West
  • class: "Middle-class and small farmers, pockets of northeastern urban laborers and artisans"
  • religion: Catholics, frontier Baptists and Methodists, free thinkers
• leaders
  • Andrew Jackson
  • Martin Van Buren

*Andrew Jackson's presidency(1829-1837)

• *"Spoils System"
• Jackson's Bank Veto
  • Bank Recharter Bill(1832)
  • Nicholas Biddle
  • removal of U.S. funds in 1833
• Indian removals
  • Indian Removal Act
  • Indian Territory
  • *Five Civilized Tribes
    • *Cherokee
      • Cherokee efforts to adapt
        • adoption of sedentary agriculture
        • establishment of a republic with a written constitution
        • establishment of a police force
        • possession of black slaves
        • *Charles Gist/Sequoyah
          • Cherokee Phoenix
        • *Worcester v. Georgia(1832)
        • Cherokee capitals
          • New Echota
          • Red Clay
      • *Trail of Tears
        • 15,000 Cherokee removed(1838-39)
        • 4000 dead
        • 100,000 members of the Five Civilized Tribes(1830's)
    • Chickasaw
    • Choctaw
    • Creek
    • Seminole
      • *Second Seminole War(1835-42)
        • 10,000 U.S. Army regulars and 30,000 militia
        • 1500 dead
        • $20 million spent
        • remaining Seminole driven into the Everglades

*Nullification Crisis(1832-33)

• South Carolina
• nullification of 1828 and 1832 Tariff Acts(24 Nov 1832)
• *John Calhoun
  • *"Exposition and Protest"
    • argument that protective tariffs benefitted the industrializing North at the expense of the agrarian South
    • defense of nullification
• 1833 compromise tariff

1840 presidential election

• *Martin Van Buren
  • Panic of 1837
• *William Henry Harrison
  • "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too"
  • Battle of the Thames(October 1813)