Antebellum America:
From Jackson to the Civil War
APUSH Exam Review Session III
The Age of Jackson as a Period of Change
Things to remember about Jackson:
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The first westerner to elected president
He was a self-made man, yet a wealthy slave owner
He was a champion of the common man
He was a military/national hero comparable to
Washington
 To him politics were intensely personal and partisan,
reflecting political sentiments of the day
 This political partisanship gave way to the creation of
the Democratic Party
Quick Review:
How might the contested election of 1824 have
contributed to Jackson’s political partisanship?
Jackson’s Political Prejudices:
 The Federal Government had become the domain
of the wealthy elite.
 These elite interests too often used the
government to their advantage.
 These artificial advantages were unfair, corrupting
and inherently undemocratic.
 Jackson’s primary target – Henry Clay’s American
System of govt support for:
1.
2.
3.
Internal Improvements
National Bank
Protective Tariffs
Jackson’s Philosophy on Government:
 Government of the elite ultimately becomes inefficient and
corrupt.
 A rotation system, where by new democratizing blood would
make government more democratic, less corrupt, and more
responsive to the will of the voter. (SPOILS SYSTEM)
*Jackson’s creation of the spoils system directly contributed
to political partisanship and political party formation.
Factors contributing to the growth of Jacksonian Democracy:
 The number of Americans voting dramatically expands.
 As growing number of Americans experience opportunity, they
are more demanding of the govt to guarantee equality of
opportunity.
The Economic Roots of the Crisis:
 Historic southern hostility toward tariffs.
 By the 1830s, Cotton constitutes at least 50% of all US
exports.
 The Tariff of 1828 (Tariff of Abominations)
 Fears in South Carolina that enhanced federal authority
encouraged by a high tariffs could be turned against the
institution of slavery.
Why so sensitive about slavery?
Rabid abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison began publishing
The Liberator in 1831
Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion locked the South into a
perpetual state of terror and fear
“King Cotton” dominated the southern economy
 The Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions provided a
historical precedent.
 Calhoun wrote Exposition & Protest, in which he
laid out his Doctrine of Nullification.
This Nullification Doctrine stated that federal legislation
that was detrimental to the interests of a state (like a tariff)
could be declared null and void;
If three-fourths of the states agreed, the legislation would
be void nation-wide;
If the federal government refused to allow its laws to
nullified by a single state, that state had the right to
secede.
*Webster-Hayne Debates (1830) bring issue to Congress.
 In 1832, Congress increases tariff rates.
 South Carolina responds by declaring the Tariffs of
1828 & 1832 null and void, prohibiting the collection
of tariffs, and threatening secession if the federal
government intervened.
 Jackson announced that federal law was supreme,
secession was illegal, and all who participated were
committing treason.
 Congress passed the Force Bill granting Jackson the
power to prepare for military action.
 Clay brokers a compromise, whereby tariff rates
would be reduced over 10 years and South Carolina
suspended and later rescinded the Ordinance of
Nullification.
Jackson’s Arguments against the BUS:
 The BUS was a financial monopoly for its investors who were
unfairly profiting from government deposits
 Many Congressmen & Senators were on the payroll of the
BUS – conflict of interest/corruption
 The BUS had used its own political patronage and economic
prowess to influence politics and elections
The Opening Salvo in the Bank War:
 The BUS president, Nicholas Biddle, pushed Congress to
recharter the bank ahead of schedule to make it an election
year issue.
 Jackson vetoed the bill. (Jackson was the first president to use
the power of the veto for partisan political purposes.)
 The 1832 election was seen referendum on the BUS.
The Bank War, Round 2:
 Jackson interprets his victory over Henry Clay as a mandate to
“kill” the BUS – esp. after he discovers that the Bank had
financially supported Clay’s campaign.
 To kill the BUS, Jackson calls on Roger B. Taney to redirect
federal deposits to state “pet” banks, while continuing to use
federal deposits in the BUS for govt expenditures.
 Biddle raises interest rates and constricts the supply of money
hoping that the resulting recession 1833-34 would be blamed
on Jackson. (Only strengthened Jackson’s claim that the BUS
was too independent and powerful.)
 More so than any of his predecessors, Jackson
expanded the power of the Executive Branch.
 While a strong Executive, many of Jackson’s policies
favored states’ rights advocates and thus increased
sectional tensions.
 His populistic, egalitarian rhetoric provided a platform
and vocabulary for the emerging Democratic Party.
 In opposition to Jackson, the Whig Party is established.
Causes of the conflict:
1. Slavery, as a growing moral issue in the North,
verses its defense and expansion in the South.
2. Constitutional disputes over the nature of the
federal union and states’ rights.
3. Economic differences between the industrializing
North and the agricultural South over such issues as
tariffs, banking, and internal improvements.
4. Political blunders and extremism on both sides that
accelerated tension and reduced the possibility for
compromise.
Democrats:
 “Outsiders” who opposed
capitalist transformation
 skilled workers who resented
wage labor
 Catholics who resented the
Protestant dominated Whig
Party – esp. on reform
 Heirs of Jefferson & Jackson
who challenged elite, wealthy
institutions
 Often racists, and committed
to the preservation of slavery
 Immigrants who were
exploited by industrial
capitalism
 Democratic strongholds:
Northern urban areas, South,
and the parts of the West
Whigs (Republicans after 1854):
 “Insiders” who benefitted from
capitalist transformation.
 White collar workers
 Upper-class Protestants
 Northern & Western farmers
that lived near/depended on
transportation routes
 Those that favored/benefited
from improved internal
improvements
 Supporters of tariffs
 Supporters of a national bank
 Reform minded – esp.
temperance & abolitionism
 Anti-Catholic
 Anti-Immigrant
 Free Soil
Major Events in the Expansion of Slavery:
 1820 Missouri Compromise
 1846-48 War with Mexico & Mexican Cession
 Compromise of 1850
 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
 1857 Dred Scott Ruling
Major Events that Challenged Slavery:
 Growing abolitionist movement in the North
 The Free Soil Movement (Free Soil Party 1848)
 Northern challenges to Federal Fugitive Slave Laws
 Growing awareness of slavery – Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
 The fall of the Whig Party
 Reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
 Bleeding Kansas
 1854 Birth of the Republican Party
 John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
 The Election of Republican Abraham Lincoln (1860)