THE EXPANDING REPUBLIC1815-1840

IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION

•Networks of roads, canals, steam-boats, and railroads• Lowered the cost of travel•Moved goods to wider markets• Facilitated the flow of political information through newspapers and US mail

ERIE CANAL

ERIE CANAL OPENED IN 1825

• Before the Erie Canal opened, a trip from New York City to Buffalo took two weeks• After the canal opened, the same trip took four days

AN ENGINEERING FEAT

• 350 miles, from Albany to Buffalo• Linking New York

City with the Great Lakes Region

ERIE CANAL EARLY 20TH CENTURY

ERIE CANAL TODAY

STEAMBOAT

• Steamboat allowed craft to go up-river against the current• A furnace heated

water under pressure in a boiler• It produced steam,

powering an engine that pushed giant paddlewheels

EXPLOSIONS

• Thousands died as a result of explosions aboard steamboats• In the case of the

Lexington, in Long Island Sound, most people died from the cold water rather than the explosion

RAILROADS

1835 RAIL ENGINE

FACTORIES

• Young women employees were cheaper than men• They flocked to factory

towns from farms, hoping to earn money and to have more freedom• Shoemakers and shoe-

binders (stitching the top parts of the shoe)

LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS

• 1821 a group of Boston entrepreneurs founded Lowell, where all aspects of cloth production—combing, shrinking, spinning, weaving, and dyeing were centralized

LOWELL MILLS• By 1830, eight

mills in Lowell employed more than 5,000 young women who lived in closely supervised company owned boardinghouses.

BANKING

• From 1814 to 1840 tremendous growth in state-chartered banks

• Second Bank of the United States, with eighteen branches, opened in 1816 with a 20-year charter (the first bank of US charter had expired in 1811)

• Banks enlarged the money supply by making loans to manufacturers; they had a lot of power over economy by deciding who got loans

LAWYERS

• Commercial law profession expanded as the banks did

• Lawyers wrote new state laws of incorporation for businesses, protecting individuals from being liable for corporate debts

• Rewrote laws of eminent domain, empowering states to buy land for roads and canals

FINANCIAL PANICS

• Some state banks suspended specie payments (the exchange of gold or silver for banknotes)• 1818 the Bank of the US called its loans,

requiring the state banks to call their loans, contracting the economy.• Coupled with a financial crisis in Europe in

1819, the result was the “panic of 1819”• Another panic in 1837 with similar causes

ELECTION OF 1828

• In 22 out of 24 states, voters chose the electors in the electoral college, not the state legislatures

• The first presidential election in which popular votes determined the outcome

POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

• New campaign styles• State level candidates gave speeches, appeared at picnics• Partisan newspapers publicized personalities like never before• First time politicians identified themselves as “Jackson men”

or “Adams men” and party lines were solidified by the mid 1830s into Whig or Democrat

• 1828 first election where character issues of the candidates was important• Adams was vilified as elitist, a monarchist, a bookish academic• Jackson was exposed for his notorious violent temper

EMERGENCE OF TWO PARTIES

•Whigs (like Adams) a moralistic, top-down party ready to make major decisions to promote economic growth

• Democrats (like Jackson) a contentious, energetic party ready to embrace individualism

PRESIDENT JACKSON

• He appointed only loyalists, unlike predecessors who tried to dampen conflict by appointing people of different points of view

JACKSON VICTORY AND CALHOUN AS VP

• Jackson won a huge victory, and he chose John C. Calhoun as his VP; Calhoun had been VP with Adams but had broken with his policies

SPOILS SYSTEM

•President Jackson gave government jobs and appointments to those who had been a friend or loyal to him. He replaced many competent people•“to the victor belong the spoils”

VETO POWER

• President Jackson exercised veto power over Congress• Vetoed a federal highway bill in Maysville

Kentucky, Henry Clay’s home state• Jackson believed federal tax dollars should

not be spent on local projects, but general projects• He used the veto 12 times; all previous

presidents together up to that time used it 9 times

ECONOMIC POLICY

• 1828 Congress passed revised tariff known as the Tariff of Abominations, a bundle of taxes on imports as high as 50%

• South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun advanced a Doctrine of Nullification, arguing that states had the right to abolish Congress’ acts in cases when Congress overstepped its powers

PRESIDENT SHUTS OUT VP

• Jackson became president in 1829, and shut out his VP Calhoun from access and power• Calhoun resigned in 1832, and was

elected to the US Senate

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT VS. STATES’ RIGHTS

• South Carolina declared federal tariffs to be null and void in 1833• Jackson sent armed ships to Charleston’s harbor

and threatened to invade the state; • he pushed through Congress the Force Bill,

defining South Carolina stance as treason and authorizing military to collect federal tariffs

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PREVAILS

• Congress passed a revised bill more acceptable to the South and South Carolina withdrew its nullification; it did however nullify the Force Bill.

• Federal power had prevailed over a dangerous assertion of states’ rights but the question was far from settled and slavery threatened to emerge as a national political issue.

THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT OF 1830• Congress

appropriated $500,000 to relocate eastern tribes west of the Mississippi

INDIAN POLICY

• Jackson explained that the removal was the only way to “save the Indians.”• The Indians that resisted were attacked

by militias and killed• The Creeks, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and

Cherokee tribes in the South refused to relocate and a second Seminole War broke out in Florida.

LEGAL CHALLENGES TO INDIAN POLICY

• 1831. Cherokee leaders asked the Supreme Court to stop the State of Georgia from seizing their property. The Court sided with Georgia saying they were not citizens and therefore had no right to sue

• a year later they brought suit again, this time in the name of a white supporter. In Worcester v. Georgia (1832) the Supreme Court upheld the territorial sovereignty of the Cherokee people

• Jackson was so angry he ignored the Court saying “If they now refuse to accept the liberal terms offered, they can only be liable for whatever evils and difficulties may arise. I feel conscious of having done my duty to my red children.”

TRAIL OF TEARS: A 1,200 MILE JOURNEY WEST

UNDER ARMED GUARD--25% DIED, 1838-39

SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

RELIGIOUS REVIVAL

AMERICAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY

• Founded by Lyman Beecher in 1826• Drinking led to

poverty, crime, and family violence

ABOLITION

William Lloyd Garrison Abolitionist newspaper

GRIMKE SISTERS

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON