“Corrupt Bargain of 1824”
• Election of 1824:
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Andrew Jackson (Tenn.)
Henry Clay (Kent.)
William Crawford (Georgia)
John Q. Adams (Mass.)
• All run as “Republicans”
• “Universal white manhood suffrage”
– Popular vote now more influential
• No majority in electoral college → goes to House
• Adams vs. Jackson
– Clay (Speaker of House) drops out, throws support to Adams
– Adams wins and makes Clay Sec. of State
• Jacksonians outraged: “Corrupt Bargain?”
• Adams enters presidency under cloud of scandal
President John Quincy Adams
• Smart, capable, respected, but…
• Seen as distant from people
• Alienated…
– His own party
• Does not engage in cronyism
– The South
• built roads, canals, education, pro-Indians
– The West
• slowed western land speculation, pro-Indians
Election of 1828…
• New political party created: “Democratic Party”
– Made up of Jacksonians, Southerners, Westerners
• Jackson extremely popular with common people
• Mudslinging highlights campaigning:
– Jackson supporters attack “dishonest” Adams
– Adams campaigners attack Jackson and wife Rachel’s character
President Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson
• Westerner, loyal, tough, passionate, halfeducated
– Rags to riches story
• Represented the common man
– “Era of the Common Man”
• Instituted the “Spoils System”
– Rewards political party workers with gov’t jobs
• (Jackson’s loyal character)
– Criticized heavily
• “To the victor belong the spoils.”
– Not overly utilized
– Samuel Stwartwout scandal
“Tariff of Abominations”
• Import tax causing sectionalism:
– Northeast in favor of high tariff
• Protects manufacturers
– South and West hate tariff
• Drove up costs
• Jackson’s plan to reduce tax backfires
• Tariff of 1828 passed…
– Tariff raised to extreme 45%
– South and West outraged
• SC fears of abolition increasing…
– Britain moving towards abolitionism
– Denmark Vesey leads unsuccessful slave rebellion in
Charleston
Nullification Crisis
• John C. Calhoun promotes SC’s right to nullify the tariff
– Based off “Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions”
– Directly challenges power of federal gov’t
• Tariff of 1832 passed to scale back tax
• SC still votes to nullify federal tariff
– Threatened secession if not respected
– Jackson readies army to invade SC
• Henry Clay organized compromise:
– Nullification repealed
– Tariff gradually lowered
– Congress passes “Force Bill” – reserves right of president to
use force to collect tariff
• Significance?
– SC abides by tariff, but successfully challenged federal gov’t
Jackson’s Native American Policy
• Westward expansion causing problems with
Indians
• Many felt Indians and whites couldn’t coexist
peacefully
– Assimilation attempts had failed
• Indian Removal Act
– Indians forcibly relocated to western
territories (Oklahoma)
• “Trail of Tears” – Cherokees relocated from GA to
OK (1/3 of 15,000 die en route)
• Indian resistance fails
– Created Bureau of Indian Affairs
New Election Trends
• Jackson easily defeats Clay
• America becoming more democratic…
– New parties emerge:
• “Whig Party” and “Anti-Masonic Party”
• Both made up of various factions – hated Jackson
– National nominating conventions
• People of political party directly nominate
candidates
– “Party platforms” printed and distributed
– Laid out position on the issues
Jackson vs. Bank of the U.S.
• Jackson distrusted Bank of U.S.
– Tool for rich to get richer
• Bank minted “hard” coin money (economic stability)
– Poor get poorer
• Poor wanted “soft” paper money (allows for inflation
• Nicholas Biddle (B.U.S. President)
– Coined hard money, cracked down on western
“wildcat” banks
• Jackson vetoes Clay and Webster’s bill to recharter B.U.S.
– Lose-lose situation for Jackson
• “The Bank…is trying to kill me, but I will kill it.”
Jackson vs. Bank of the U.S.
• Jackson and Biddle battle in “Bank War”
– Chaos ensues in banking system
• Bank foreclosures rampant
• Hurts “the common man”
– Jackson still supported (West vs. East = sectionalism)
• 1836 – Bank of the U.S. closes
– “Divorce Bill” passed by Martin Van Buren
• Gov’t divorced from banking
• Independent treasury set up
– Gov’t money kept in vaults, not banks
• Birth of modern Federal Reserve System
Texas
• Vast farming land – cotton
• 1823 – Stephen Austin leads 300 families
in to settle
• Mexican President – Santa Anna allowed
them under conditions:
– 1. Must become Mexican citizens
– 2. Must become Catholic
– 3. No slavery allowed
• Texans protest Mexico freeing it’s slaves
• Declare independence in 1836
– “Lone Star Republic”
Texas
• 1836 – Battle of the Alamo
– Mexicans crush outnumbered Texans
• Tex pres. Houston wins Battle of San
Jacinto
– Santa Anna forced to surrender
• Texas independent
– Wants to join U.S.
– Slavery debate kills movement for annexation
President Van Buren
• Jackson’s popularity leads to his VP, Martin Van
Buren being elected
– Whig party still new and unorganized
– Van Buren not as loved by people
– Took problems caused by Jackson
• Issues for MVB:
– Panic of 1837
• Over-speculation, failing crops, and Jackson’s:
– Bank War created chaos
– “specie circular” debt system fails
– Neutrality between Canada & England uprising
– Annexation of Texas issue
• North angered at possible slave state
• Who gains strength from these issues?
Whigs Gaining Strength…
Two-Party System Returns
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Democrats
“Common man”
States’ rights
Lower classes
Farmers
South, West
Small towns
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Whigs
Strong, central gov’t
National bank, tariffs,
public education
Wealthy, educated
Industry
East
Cities
Election of 1840
• Whig Party gains power
• W.H. Harrison and John Tyler nominated
• Birth of modern campaigns
– Log Cabin image of Harrison
– Hard Cider, slogans, and songs:
• “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”
Mid 1800s America
• America moving west
– “land butchery”
• Industrial Revolution
– Cotton gin
• Gold discovered in North. California (1849)
• Irish and German immigration
• Sparks rise of “Know-Nothing Party”
– Nativist political party
• Transportation improves (highways steamboats)
• Erie Canal (booms in NYC, Midwest cities)
• Education and reform
Cotton
• Cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney in 1793
– Demand for cotton
• Leads to “land butchery”
– westward expansion
• more slavery
• ½ of world’s cotton grown in South
– South believes their economic importance to
the world would give them support in case of
war with North
“Cottonocracy”
• “Antebellum” (pre-Civil War South)
• Oligarchy – government by a small number of
elite
– About 1,700 families had large plantations with more
than 100 slaves
– Had the most political power
• Social ranking system:
– 1. elite, large slave-owners
– 2. small farmers – owned a few slaves
– 3. poor, non-slave owning whites (3/4 of white
population)
• Despised wealthy slave owners
• Still pro-slavery, very racist
Plantation Slavery
• Slave importation banned in 1808
– Not regulated or enforced
– Slave population self-sufficient through
childbirth
• Slaves = investment
– Protected from dangerous jobs
• Deep South – SC, Louisiana
– Most strict, tough areas for slaves
• Slave revolts (Denmark Vesey, Nat
Turner) caused tighter security and
worse laws for blacks
Abolitionist Movements
• “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher
Stowe
– Emotional and chilling portrayal of slavery
– HUGE impact on debate of slavery
• Frederick Douglass
– Escaped slave
• William Lloyd Garrison
– Extremist-abolitionist
– Seen as disruptive to unity, Northern
economy
South’s Defense
• “Bible supported slavery”
• Slave owners convert their slaves to
Christianity
• Whites and “happy darkies” get along
• Slaves and slave-owners like family
• Slaves lived better lives than Northern
“wage slaves”
Whig Party Loses Leader, Power
• William Henry Harrison dies after a month
in office – VP John Tyler is new president
– Tyler not very “Whig-minded”
– Vetoes Whig legislation – kicked out of party
– Tyler deals with numerous foreign affairs
• Canadian attack on American ship
• Borders of Maine (U.S. vs. Britain)
• British giving escaped slaves asylum
• 1844 – James K. Polk (Democrat)runs for
president
– Platform of expansion and “Manifest Destiny”
Polk’s Presidency
• Polk very successful and efficient
• 4 part plan:
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Lower the tariff
Restore independent treasury
Clear up the Oregon border issue
Get California
• Accomplished all in 4 years
• Issue with Texas
– Still independent – Texas becoming friendly with
European countries
– Dilemma for America
• Slavery issue, economic factors, Monroe doctrine
– Polk invites Texas to join the U.S. in 1845
Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
• Polk wants California (Mexican territory)
– Offers to buy first, uses force when refused
– “Baited” Mexico into a war
– Santa Anna cleverly returns to lead Mexican Army
• U.S. dominates Mexico in 3 phases:
– Occupy California
– Secure Texas
– Conquer Mexico City
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Mexican Cession – forced to give up present day
CA, NV, AZ, NM, CO, UT
• Gadsden Purchase made in 1854
– Needed land for railroad route
President Zachary Taylor
• Gen. Zachary Taylor wins presidency under Whig
Party in 1848
• Challenged by “Free Soil Party”
• People moving west (new land, gold in CA)
– Issue of slavery – slave or free states?
• Huge debate between North and South
– Clay, Webster, Calhoun
– Slowly working towards compromise
– Taylor (anti-slavery) threatens to veto if North makes
any concessions
– Taylor dies, compromising VP Millard Fillmore takes
over…
Compromise of 1850
• North gets:
– California is a free state – balance tipped to free side
– Texas gives up disputed New Mexico land
– Slave trade now illegal in D.C. (symbolic significance
only)
• South gets:
– Popular sovereignty in new Mexican Cession lands
• New states vote whether to be a free state or slave state
– Texas paid $10 million for loss of land given to New
Mexico
– Fugitive Slave Law: runaway slaves given no “due
process”, money paid for catching and returning of
slave, Northern officials forced to catch slaves
• North passes laws to avoid forced capture
• Leads to further dissention between North and South
Outbreaks of Violence
• President Franklin Pierce wins election in 1852
– Democratic party, safe choice – no enemies
• Violent steps taken towards disunity:
• Kansas-Nebraska Act
– Transcontinental railroad compromise
• Kansas open to popular sovereignty
• Becomes battleground between North and South
– Extreme and violent abolitionist: John Brown
• murderer or martyr?
– Kansas “wins” vote to become slave state (scandal)
• 1856 – Brooks-Sumner Incident
– Southerner attacks Northerner in Congress with a cane
President James Buchanan
• President James Buchanan wins election in
1856
– Democratic
– Ran against John Fremont (Republican)
– Northerner, but sympathetic towards South
• Panic of 1857
– Caused by over-speculation, inflation caused by
California gold, and overproduction of grain
Dred Scott Case (1857)
• Slave moved by master from South to North,
then back to South
– Tried to sue for freedom → lost case
– Decision Stated slaves not citizens → cannot
use legal process
– Also stated Congress cannot outlaw slavery
• Infuriates North
• South now had advantage politically (president,
Supreme Court, Constitution)
• North has powerless majority Congress
Rise of Lincoln
1858 Illinois Senate Race:
Abe Lincoln (Rep)
vs.
Stephen A. Douglas (Dem)
•“The Great Debates”
•Douglas wins election, loses his heavy support from
South after “Freeport Doctrine”
– Stated people hold power to vote down slavery,
despite the Supreme Court
•Lincoln loses, but becomes national figure
Election of 1860
• Democrats split:
– North wants Stephen A. Douglas to run
• Popular sovereignty position
– South wants John C. Breckinridge
• Pro-slavery position
• Republicans select Abe Lincoln
– Campaign successfully unites many Northern factions:
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Free-Soilers (will stop slavery’s expansion)
Manufactures (will raise the import tariff)
Immigrants (will secure better rights)
Westerners (will build a NW railroad)
Farmers (will establish homesteading)
– System of federal land grants
Election of 1860
• Lincoln not an abolitionist, but was a FreeSoiler → hated by the south
• SC threatens to secede if Lincoln wins
election
• Southern votes split between Douglas and
Breckenridge
• Lincoln wins comfortably in November,
1860
– Scheduled to take office in March 1861
The South Secedes
• SC secedes in Dec. 1860
– Soon followed by “Deep South”
• Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas
– Feb 1861 – Southern states form “Confederate States of
America”
• Elect Jefferson Davis as President of C.S.A.
– President Buchanan did almost nothing to stop the
secession
– One final compromise offered – Crittendon Compromise
(extend Missouri Compromise line – north = free, south =
slave)
– Lincoln takes over, crushes compromise
• “Honest Abe” took free-soil pledge, wouldn’t break it
Why the South Seceded:
• Institution of slavery threatened by North
– Would kill Southern economy if outlawed
• Believed starting own nation allows own
development
– Economy, industry, banking, shipping, etc
• Compared their secession to independence of
American colonies in 1776
– U.S. breaks from England, South breaks from North
• South didn’t think North would try to stop their
secession
• If war did break out, Europe would support
South due to its economic value