Units VII-VIII
Unit VIII
The election to the presidency of the frontier aristocrat and common person’s hero, Andrew
Jackson, signaled the end of the older elitist political leadership represented by John Quincy
Adams. A new spirit of mass democracy and popular involvement swept through American
society, bringing new energy, as well as conflict and corruption to public life.
Jackson successfully mobilized the techniques of the New Democracy and presidential power to
win a series of dramatic political battles against his enemies. But by the late 1830s, his Whig
opponents had learned to use the same popular political weapons against the Democrats,
signaling the emergence of the second American party system.
Amidst the whirl of democratic politics, issues of tariffs, financial instability, Indian policy, and
possible expansion in Texas indicated that difficult sectional and economic problems were
festering beneath the surface and not being very successfully addressed. Conflict over the tariff
of 1828 and 1832 revealed deepening sectional differences. Opponents of the tariff claimed that
individual states could nullify federal laws deemed harmful to their interests. Jackson disagreed
and threatened to use the military to enforce federal acts and laws. John C. Calhoun, in essence,
was making the claim that the US was a confederation of states.
Seeing the Bank of the US as a vestige of elite control of the economy, Jackson battled with its
president, Nicholas Biddle. Jackson finally defeated the Bank of the US with the Specie Circular.
Even though the Supreme Court, in McCulloch v. MD, had ruled the Bank constitutional,
Jackson had his way, but it precipitated economic collapse.
Unit VII
The importance of the West grew in the early nineteenth century. Cheap land attracted
immigrants and natives alike, and after some technological innovations, the West became an
agricultural giant. The increased output also spurred transportation developments to tie this
developing region to the rest of the US.
In the era of Jacksonian democracy, the American population grew rapidly and changed in
character. More people lived in the raw West and in the expanding cities, and immigrant groups,
like the Irish and Germans, added their labor power to America’s economy, sometimes arousing
hostility from native-born Americans in the process. Arriving in huge numbers in the antebellum
period, these immigrants coalesced into voting blocks, allowing them to play a significant role in
the nation’s municipal, state, and federal elections. Concurrently, organizations and political
parties, such as the Know-Nothings, formed to fight what they considered a weakening of
American culture because of immigration.
In the early nineteenth century, the American economy developed the beginnings of
industrialization. The greatest advances occurred in transportation, as canals and railroads bound
the Union together into a continental economy with strong regional specialization.
Industrialization was mainly a northern phenomenon. The southern economy was comparatively
stagnant and lacked diversity. Consequently, the two dominant classes, the industrial and
merchant capitalist in the North and the planter-slaveholder in the South, wanted political and
economic regulations and laws contrary to the other’s needs. For example, northern
manufacturers favored a high protective tariff, which was not in the interest of the planterslaveholders. The economic interdependence between the Northeast and the West would play a
role in the debate over the expansion of slavery. This relationship grew so strong that the regions
would ally against the Confederacy.
The spectacular religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening reversed a trend toward
secular rationalism in American culture and helped to fuel a spirit of social reform. In the
process, religion was increasingly feminized, while women, in turn, took the lead in movements
of reform, including those designed to improve their own condition. Historians debate whether
the term “Jacksonian democracy” is accurate. Some see Jackson as a representative of the
common man at the center of the era’s democratizing spirit. Others see Jackson as indifferent to
some reform movements (such as women’s suffrage), opposed to others (abolitionism – he was a
slave owner), or unaware of others (possibly urban reform). They hold that grassroots
movements of the 1830s, 40s, and 50s were the primary impetus for reform.
The attempt to improve Americans’ faith, morals, and character affected nearly all areas of
American life and culture, including education, the family, literature, and the arts – culminating
in the great crusade against slavery. Some reform movements advocated challenging the social,
economic, and ideological status quo. Advocates of women’s rights, for example, challenged the
stereotypes that associated women with a “cult of domesticity.” Abolitionists challenged the
institution of slavery. For their part, temperance advocates fumed that American civilization and
culture were being undermined by “demon rum.”
Intellectual and cultural development in America was less prolific than in Europe, but they did
earn some international recognition and became more distinctly American, especially after the
War of 1812.