Jackson’s Presidency &
Antebellum Reform
Please take out the following:
*Class Notes #15 – Andrew Jackson
*Homework #8
*Unit Test Preview
*Unit Binder Guide
Take two minutes to double check that you have all materials
listed on the back of the binder guide – we will add Focus #15
today.
We will:
*evaluate how Andrew Jackson helped to shape American
politics and the presidency
*identify major religious and reform movements that sought
to improve American society in the early 1800s
Indian Removal: The Issue
• planters wanted more land out west to plant cotton and other
profitable crops
• the “Five Civilized Tribes” (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, and Seminole) owned much of the sought after
land in the Old Southwest (Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, and Tennessee)
Left: Benjamin
• What did Jackson do?
Hawkins, one of
the first U.S.
Indian agents,
teaches Creek
Indians how to
farm (c. 1805)
Right: Sequoyah,
Cherokee chief,
who developed a
Cherokee alphabet
and encouraged
his people to
become farmers
Tariffs & Nullification: The Issue
• Following the War of 1812, Congress raised tariffs to
protect U.S. industry against foreign competition
• Congress passed the highest tariff yet in 1828, called
the “Tariff of Abominations” in the South, where
people opposed it because they believed it only
helped the North and hurt the Southern economy
• South Carolina threatened to nullify the law,
stating that it was a violation of states’ rights
The tariff issue pitted two of Jackson’s political
rivals against each other – Senator Henry Clay of
Kentucky (left), who helped to draft and pass tariff
legislation through Congress, and Jackson’s first
Vice-President, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
(right). Who would Jackson support?
Second Bank of the U.S.: The Issue
• Henry Clay wanted to re-charter the Second Bank of
the U.S. for another 20 years (starting in 1836)
• He pushed for the vote earlier than necessary in order
to make it an election issue in his presidential race
against Jackson in 1832
• Many Americans distrusted the Bank because it
pursued a tight credit policy that had helped to prevent
inflation but also made it harder to borrow money
Left: The Second Bank of the U.S.
headquarters in Philadelphia
Right: Bank president Nicholas Biddle
symbolized the elite class of Northern
bankers and merchants who many Americans
perceived as controlling the Bank for their
own selfish interests
Indian Removal – Jackson’s Views
The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the
westward, and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied
by the red men of the South and West by a fair exchange, and, at
the expense of the United States, to send them to land where their
existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual. …
How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the
opportunity of removing to the West on such conditions! If the
offers made to the Indians were extended to them, they would be
hailed with gratitude and joy. …
Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward
the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to
submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population.
To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the
General Government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes
to pay the whole expense of his removal and settlement.
Indian Removal – Cherokee View
…we are despoiled of our private possessions … We are
stripped of every attribute of freedom and eligibility for
legal self-defense. Our property may be plundered
before our eyes; violence may be committed on our
persons; even our lives may be taken away, and there is
none to regard our complaints. We are denationalized;
we are disenfranchised; we are deprived of membership
in the human family; we have neither land, nor home,
nor resting-place, that can be called our own.
Memorial presented to Congress by Chief John Ross
(1836)
Indian Removal
Tariffs & Nullification – Jackson’s Views
Whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the people of South Carolina
a course of conduct in direct violation of their duty as citizens of the
United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its
Constitution, and having for its object the destruction of the Union…
I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, have thought
proper to issue this my proclamation…
If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, the Union
would have been dissolved in its infancy.…
I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States,
assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union,
contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized
by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was
founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was
formed….
Tariffs & Nullification –
South Carolina’s View
In the great struggle in which we are engaged for the
preservation of our rights and liberties, it is my fixed
determination to assert and uphold the sovereign authority of
the State, and to enforce … her sovereign will. I recognize no
allegiance as paramount to that which the citizens of South
Carolina owe to the State of their birth …
South Carolina is solicitous to preserve the Constitution as our
fathers framed it – according to its true spirit, intent, and
meaning; but she is inflexibly determined never to surrender her
reserved rights, nor to suffer the constitutional compact to be
converted into an instrument for the oppression of her citizens.
Governor Robert Hayne (December 1832)
Tariffs & Nullification
Second Bank of the U.S. – Jackson’s Views
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of
government to their selfish purposes. …
In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior
industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to
protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural
and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and
exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more
powerful, the humble members of society-the farmers, mechanics, and
laborers-who have neither the time nor the means of securing like
favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their
Government.
There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its
abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven
does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich
and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me
there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just
principles….
Boston Newspapers Support the Bank
The national bank, though not properly a political institution, is
one of the most important and valuable instruments that are used
in the practical administration of the government.... As the fiscal
agent of the executive, it has exhibited a remarkable intelligence,
efficiency, energy, and above all, INDEPENDENCE. This...has
been its real crime. As the regulator of the currency, it has
furnished the country with a safe, convenient and copious
circulating medium, and prevented the mischiefs that would
otherwise result from the insecurity of local banks. As a mere
institution for loaning money, it has been...the Providence of the
less wealthy sections of the Union....Through its dealings in
exchange at home and abroad, the bank has materially facilitated
the operations of our foreign and domestic trade. The important
advantages which have thus been derived from this institution
have been unattended by any countervailing evil.
Boston Daily Advertiser (1832)
Second Bank of the U.S.
New Ideas Reshape the Nation
A revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over
Christians. … When the churches are thus awakened and
reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will
follow, going through the same stages of conviction,
repentance, and reformation. … Harlots, and drunkards,
and infidels, and all sorts of abandoned characters, are
awakened and converted. The worst part of human society
are softened and reclaimed, and made to appear as lovely
specimens of the beauty of holiness.
Movement:
The Second Great Awakening –
major religious revival that swept the
nation from the 1790s through the
1840s
Charles G.
Finney
from his sermon,
“What a Revival
Religion Is”
(1834)
Impact of the Second Great Awakening
• encouraged Americans to seek salvation and better themselves
and their communities
• resulted in camp meetings and the rise of new churches (ex:
the Mormons and the African Methodist Episcopal Church)
• revivals were characterized by intense emotions
Pictured right: A camp
revival meeting, a
common occurrence on
the American frontier;
the most famous was the
Cane Ridge, Kentucky
revival of 1801
Pictured above: Richard Allen, founder of the
first AME Church in Philadelphia in 1794;
became the first AME bishop in 1816
Impact of the Second Great Awakening
The religious revival followed
patterns of westward settlement
and heavily influenced western
New York and Trans-Appalachia;
Baptist and Methodist churches
made the greatest gains in
drawing new members
New Ideas Reshape the Nation
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to
front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn
what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover
that I had not lived.”
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one
advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and
endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet
with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Movement:
Transcendentalism - philosophical
movement that emphasized individual
self-discovery and self-improvement
Henry David
Thoreau from his
book, Walden
(1854)
Impact of Transcendentalism
• Encouraged Americans to lead a simple life and value the truth
as found in nature and in personal emotion and imagination
• Helped to bring about an American cultural “renaissance”
based on romanticism in art and literature
• Unitarianism arose as an alternative to traditional churches
but shared the focus of improving individual lives and society
through the perfecting of human nature
Ralph Waldo Emerson, leader
of the transcendentalist
movement and accomplished
writer, lecturer, and poet; he
emphasized individualism
and freedom of thought; he
was Thoreau’s mentor
"We will walk on our own feet; we will
work with our own hands; we will speak
our own minds...A nation of men will for
the first time exist, because each believes
himself inspired by the Divine Soul which
also inspires all men."
-- The American Scholar (1837)
The Hudson River School of American Art
A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning
by Thomas Cole (1844)
New Ideas Reshape the Nation
“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than
any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
“Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be
equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress
discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
Movement:
Jacksonian Democracy – the expansion
of political, economic, and social equality
from the 1820s to the 1840s – more and
more Americans demanded a “voice” in
government – heavily influenced the future
direction of American politics
Alexis de Tocqueville,
French writer, from his
collection of essays,
Democracy in America
(1835-1840)
The County Election by George Caleb Bingham (1846)
American Society in the Early 1800s
Second Great Awakening
religious revival that focused on
"perfecting" the individual and
society
Jacksonian Democracy
expanding political, social, and
economic equality
rise of the "common man"
produced new religious groups such
as Mormons and the AME Church
Transcendentalism
philosophical movement that
emphasized individual self-discovery
and self-improvement
led by thinkers such as Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Antebellum Reform Movements
Abolition of Slavery
Women's Rights
Public Education
Temperance
Prison & Asylum Reform
Worker's Rights
Antebellum Reform Movements
• Working with your table team, examine the 8 sources provided to
you in the folder and listed on Focus #15.
• Match each source to the appropriate reform movement by
writing in the appropriate letter code.
• Be prepared to discuss one of the six movements and the
source(s) related to it:
*What is the problem that needs to be fixed?
*What is the message of the source (or sources)?
*What parallels do we see in American society today?
Table
1
2
3
4
5
6
Movement
Temperance
Prison &
Asylum
Reform
Worker’s
Rights
Public
Education
Women’s
Rights
Abolition of
Slavery
Before we leave…
• Turn in any homework if you have it ready today –
you’ll get it back by next class.
• We will finish the reform lesson on Wednesday
and take the quiz #3 retake in the last part of
class.
• The unit test and binder check will be on Friday,
December 6. Take advantage of the extra time to
study using your unit test preview as a guide.