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Democracy in America • Democracy in America- Alexis de Tocqueville’s study. He described America “brings the notion of political rights to the level of the humblest citizens, just as the dissemination of wealth brings the notion of property within the reach of all the members of the community.” • Tocqueville feared that industrialism would create a large class of dependant workers. Fears of rapid growth with consequences of social unrest plagued the nation.
Democracy in America • Jacksonians did not challenge the existence of slavery, they supervised horrible assaults on Native Americans and they accepted economic equality and social gradation.
The Rise of Mass Politics • 1829 - Inauguration of Andrew Jackson: public reception open to all, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story remarked "The reign of King Mob seems triumphant“ • Until 1820's few Americans had been permitted to vote- only white males who were property owners or taxpayers possessed the right
The Rise of Mass Politics • Ohio was the first state to change, allowing all white men to vote and hold public office • Older states were concerned with loss of population: began to grant similar rights, dropping or reducing property ownership requirements
The Rise of Mass Politics • Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1820: delegates complained the rich were better represented than the poor, voting and office holding were restricted to property owners, and had a peculiar system in which members of the state senate represented property rather than simply people
The Rise of Mass Politics • Daniel Webster: believed "power naturally and necessarily follows property" and “property as such should have its weight and influence in political arrangement”
The Rise of Mass Politics • The new constitution eliminated the property requirement to vote, but required that every voter be a taxpayer, and required that the governor be the owner of a considerable real estate
The Rise of Mass Politics • New York convention of 1821: James Kent argued that society "is an association for the protection of property as well as life" and that "individuals who contribute only one cent to the common stock ought not to have the same power and influence in directing the property concerns of thousands" - property qualification was still abolished
The Rise of Mass Politics • Rhode Island constitution: barred more then half adult males of the state from voting, the conservative legislature blocked all efforts at reform • Thomas L. Dorr- formed the People's Party, drafted a new constitution and submitted it to a popular vote- which was quickly approved
The Rise of Mass Politics • The legislature drafted a new constitution- but was narrowly defeated • 1842: two governments were claiming legitimacy in Rhode Island
The Rise of Mass Politics • Dorr Rebellion: old state government proclaimed Dorrites rebels, attempted to capture the state arsenal but failed- in the end a new constitution was drafted which expanded suffrage
The Rise of Mass Politics • Slaves: were not considered citizens, believed to have no legal or political rights • Free blacks: could not vote anywhere in the south, hardly anywhere in the North. PA amended its state constitution in 1838 to strip blacks of their right to vote. • Women: could not vote
The Rise of Mass Politics • No secret ballot, most votes were spoken rather than written • The number of voters increased far more rapidly than did the population, 1824 – 27% of adult white males voted, 1828 – 58%, 1840 – 80% • Growing interest in politics and party loyalty developed
The Rise of Mass Politics • Early American views of political parties: evils to be avoided and thought the nation should seek a broad consensus in which permanent factional lines would not exist. • Change in view during the 1820's and 1830's: permanent, institutionalized parties were a desirable part of the political process, essential to democracy
The Rise of Mass Politics • Martin Van Buren (“Bucktails” or “Albany Regency”) formed a political faction designed to challenge the leadership of the aristocratic Governor De Witt Clinton, they argued that an institutionalized party would produce democracy, preservation of the party as an institution through the use of favors, rewards, and patronage would the principle goal of the party leadership, they would form a permanent opposition, competing parties would have to be in tune with the will of the people in order to survive and would check and balance each other
The Rise of Mass Politics • 1830: a fully formed two party system began to operate at the national level with each party committed to its own existence as an institution and willing to accept the legitimacy of the opposition • Whigs: Anti-Jackson forces • Democrats: Followers of Jackson
The Rise of Mass Politics • Democrats had no clear or uniform ideological position, democracy should offer "equal protection and equal benefits" to all its white male citizens, believed that no region or class should be favored over another
The Rise of Mass Politics • In reality, assaulted the citadels of eastern aristocracy and made an effort to extend opportunities to the rising classes of the West and South, a firm effort was made to continue the subjugation of African Americans and Indians so that by keeping these “dangerous” elements from the body politic could white-male democracy be preserved
The Rise of Mass Politics • Jackson first went after the entrenched office holders in the federal government- he believed that government jobs were “so plain and simple that men of intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their performance.” Offices belonged to the people.
The Rise of Mass Politics • Spoils system: the right of elected officials to appoint their own followers to public office, to the victors belong the spoils – in reality Jackson removed less than 20% of permanent office holders and many of those were for corruption charges not partisan motives
The Rise of Mass Politics • The right of elected officials to appoint their own followers to public office became an established feature of American politics – offices belong to the people not entrenched officeholders • Jackson believed power would arise directly from the people, not from aristocratic political institutions such as the caucus, which restricted access to the office to those favored by the entrenched elite
The Rise of Mass Politics • Jackson avoids the caucus system in 1828, and the Democrats staged a national party convention to nominate Jackson in 1832 • The Spoils System and the Political Convention served to limit the power of two entrenched elites – permanent officeholders and the exclusive party caucus – yet neither really transferred political power to the people
"Our Federal Union" • Jackson's beliefs: strongly committed to preservation of the Union, commitment to extending power beyond entrenched elites; reduce functions of the federal government, forceful presidential leadership
"Our Federal Union" • South Carolina: believed tariff of abominations was responsible for stagnation of the economy but actually a result of exhaustion of farmland • John C. Calhoun: once supported the tariff of 1816, developed a theory he believed was a more moderate alternative to secession- nullification
"Our Federal Union" • Argument: since the government was the creation of the states, the states not the courts should be the final arbiters of the constitutionality of federal laws - if the state found congress passed an unconstitutional law they could hold a special convention and declare it null and void within the state (VA & KY Resolutions, Jefferson and Madison, 10th Amendment), Nullification Doctrine - gained support in South Carolina to be used against the Tariff of Abominations
"Our Federal Union" • Martin Van Buren: secretary of state, member of both the official cabinet and the “Kitchen Cabinet” (Jackson's unofficial circle of political allies) that also included Democratic newspaper editors (Hill, Kendall, and Blair)
"Our Federal Union" • Peggy Eaton Affair: Peggy became a cabinet wife after her marriage with Eaton (secretary of war), were rumored to have had an affair together before the marriage, therefore not accepted by Calhoun's wife into the social circle- Van Buren befriended the Eaton's and thus Jackson chose him to succeed him in the presidency, ending Calhoun’s dreams of the presidency
"Our Federal Union" • 1830 Webster-Hayne Debate: A Senator from Connecticut suggested that all land sales and surveys be temporarily discontinued • Robert Hayne (SC) responded charging that slowing the growth of the west was a way for the East to retain its political and economic power - argued the south and west were victims of tyranny • Daniel Webster (Mass) a nationalistic Whig replied attacking Hayne for a challenge to the integrity of the Union, setting up a debate on the issue of states’ rights versus national power
"Our Federal Union" • Hayne replied with a defense of the theory of nullification • Second Reply to Hayne: memorable speech stating "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable"
"Our Federal Union" • Annual Democratic Party Banquet to honor Thomas Jefferson, tension builds as people waited to see where Jackson and Calhoun stood on the issue • Jackson's Toast: "OurFederal Union- it must be preserved"- spoken directly to Calhoun. • Calhoun's Reply: "The Union, next to our liberty most dear"
"Our Federal Union" • South Carolina voted to nullify the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 at a state convention after the tariff bill of 1832 offered them no relief from the Tariff of Abominations, also forbade the collection of duties within the state • South Carolina elected Hayne to serve as governor and Calhoun replaced Hayne as Senator after he resigned the Vice Presidency
"Our Federal Union" • Jackson insisted nullification was treason and those implementing were traitors, strengthened federal forts in South Carolina and ordered a war ship and several revenue ships to Charleston • Jackson proposed a Force Bill authorizing the president to use the military to see that acts of Congress were obeyed
"Our Federal Union" • Calhoun’s Predicament – not a single state had come to South Carolina’s support, SC itself was divided, and there was no way a single state was going to win a showdown with the national government
"Our Federal Union" • Clay resolved the crisis by presenting a compromise in which the tariff would gradually be lowered until in 1842 it would be back to approximately where it was in 1816 • Clay’s compromise and force bill both passed Congress on the same day, March 1, 1833
"Our Federal Union" • Results: Jackson signed both the Force Bill and Clay’s Compromise, South Carolina convention repealed its nullification of the tariffs, but also nullified the Force Bill in a purely symbolic gesture, claimed a victory for nullification which they insisted forced the revision of the tariffs
The Indian Removal • Jackson's attitude towards Indians: wanted them to move west beyond Mississippi, out of the way of expanding white settlement. Special intensity due to his past campaigns against Native American tribes. • Jackson represented a view that savages were uncivilized and uncivilizable.
The Indian Removal • People of the west: saw Indians as savages, uncivilizable, the Indians possessed valuable land in the path of expanding white settlement, whites should not be expected to live near savages, did not want continual violence between natives and whites
The Indian Removal • Supreme Court: established tribes as "nations within a nation", Marshall declared the tribes sovereign nations and dependent ones for whom the federal government must take considerable responsibility for.
The Indian Removal • The Black Hawk War: 1831-1832 between the Sauk and Fox Indians and white settlers in Illinois, an earlier treaty ceded tribal lands in Illinois but Black Hawk and his followers refused to recognize the legality of the agreement and re-crossed the Mississippi into Illinois, militia vowed to exterminate the "bandit collection of Indians", the conflict was notable for the brutality the white officers showed and attacked them even when they attempted to surrender, Black Hawk was captured and sent on a tour of the East
The Indian Removal • Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw had established settled agricultural societies with successful economies in Western Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida
The Indian Removal • Cherokees in Georgia: formed a stable and sophisticated culture, written language, formal constitution, independent Cherokee nation, gave up many traditional ways, gave up hunting, took up farming • Some whites argued that the Cherokees should be allowed to retain their astern lands since they had grown to be civilized under missionary pressures.
The Indian Removal • Southern impatience about Indian removal. Made an example out of trying to dislodge the Creeks under J.Q. Adams. • 1830 Removal Act: appropriated money to finance federal negotiation with the southern tribes aimed at relocating them to the West, Jackson dispatched federal officials to negotiate new treaties with the tribes
The Indian Removal • Officials were sent to negotiate nearly 100 new treaties with remaining tribes. Southern tribes faced a combination of pressure from the state and federal government.
The Indian Removal • Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia: Cherokees tried to stop white encroachments by appealing to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the tribe
The Indian Removal • Jackson's Reaction: eager to retain the support of white southerners and westerners he encouraged white settlers to go against Marshall's ruling, saw it as an attempt by the Justices to express hostility to the larger aims of his presidency. • "John Marshall has made his decision - now let him enforce it"
The Indian Removal • In 1835 a minority faction of the Cherokees signed a treaty with the federal government ceding the tribes’ land to Georgia for $5 million and a reservation west of the Mississippi • The great majority of the 17,000 Cherokees did not recognize the treaty as legitimate and refused to leave their homes, Jackson sent an army of 7,000 under General Winfield Scott to round them up and drive them westward at bayonet point
The Indian Removal • 1,000 fled to North Carolina, established a small reservation in the Smokey Mountains which survives today, the rest were forced to march west to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) 1/8 or more are said to have died on the journey westward.
