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)

• What did Jackson do? Left: Benjamin 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 ViewsThe 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 ViewsWhereas 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 ViewsIt 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 NationA 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. Finneyfrom 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 above: Richard Allen, founder of the first AME Church in Philadelphia in 1794; became the first AME bishop in 1816

Pictured right: A camp revival meeting, a common occurrence on the American frontier; the most famous was the Cane Ridge, Kentucky revival of 1801

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 ArtA 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

Antebellum Reform Movements

Abolition of SlaveryWomen's RightsPublic Education

TemperancePrison & Asylum Reform

Worker's Rights

Second Great Awakeningreligious revival that focused on "perfecting" the individual and

societyproduced new religious groups such

as Mormons and the AME Church

Jacksonian Democracyexpanding political, social, and

economic equalityrise of the "common man"

Transcendentalismphilosophical movement that

emphasized individual self-discovery and self-improvement

led by thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.