CHAPTER TEN:

Democratic Politics, Religions Revival, and Reform, 1824-1840

The Rise of Democratic Politics, 1824-1832: Republican party tearing b/c of pressures by 1824.
Generated by industrialization in New England, spread of cotton in South, Westward expansion. Would
lead to divisions between Democrats and Whigs. Republicans suspicious of strong federal
government, wanted states rights – would become Democrats; Republicans who believed that national
government should encourage economic development – became Whigs. Elections to office depended
less on education and wealth than on ability to identify and follow the majority; leaders could no longer
look down on the people.

Democratic Ferment:
-Political democratization took many forms.
-Most common: Substitution of poll taxes for the requirement that voters own
property.
-No new Western states had property requirements; Eastern states
slowly liberalized their laws.
-Written ballots replaced voting aloud (“stand-up” voting) – decreased
intimidation to vote for certain people.
-Appointive offices increasingly elective.
-Electoral college survived.
-Voters made choice of presidential electors, no longer state legislatures; only
six states chose electors in 1824; by 1932, only South Carolina did.
-Federalists vs. Republicans allowed expression of will.
-Republicans then Federalists tried to woo voters with barbecues.
-Each party tried to be the majority.
-Political democratization developed at uneven pace.
-1820, Repubs and Feds organized. Nominating candidates relied on the
caucus, not nomination conventions. Women and free blacks disenfranchised.
-Opposing democracy – political suicide.
-Politicians learned that they had to cater to the people.

The Election of 1824:

-Sectional tensions ended Era of Good Feelings in 1924.
-Five candidates (all Repubs) wanted presidency – John Quincy Adams (New
England), John C. Calhoun (South Carolina), William Crawford (Georgia),
Henry Clay (Kentucky).
-Clay thought he had Western states – then Andrew Jackson (Tennessee) came,
though he wasn’t taken very seriously; gained support of the frontier and Southern
opponents of Clay’s American System.
-Republican caucus chose Crawford, but the party was no longer united; ¾ Repubs in
Congress refused to go to caucus. Crawford had bad stroke. Calhoun impressed with
Jackson, withdrew, and ran for VP unopposed.
-Jackson won more popular and electoral votes than any other candidate, didn’t get
majority required by Constitution.
-Election thrown into House of Representatives, had to choose form top three
candidates (Jackson, Adams, Crawford).
-Clay gave support to Adams, wanting to make alliance between the
West and Northeast for a future run for the presidency.
 -Got Adams elected; Adams made Clay secretary of state.
“Corrupt bargain” plagued Adams’s presidency.

John Quincy Adams as President:

-Adams didn’t sense changing political climate; controversial presidency.
-1825, proposed program of federal aid for internal improvements;
Jeffersonians said it was unconstitutional, as did others such as Van Buren.
-Adams proposed to send delegates to newly independent Latin American
nations; angered southerners b/c the black republic of Haiti, created by slave
revolutionaries, would be recognized.
-Adams didn’t seek new bases for support. Alienated supporters by appointing
opponents to high offices, not wanting to be associated with just one party in
general.
-Singe-term presidency.

The Rise of Andrew Jackson:

-Jackson’s popularity rose as Adams’s went down.
-However, seen as hot-tempered by other politicians.
-Benefited from having no connection to the Monroe Doctrine and the Panic of
1819.
-Americans saw him as a link to a virtuous past.
-Few realized that a new political system was developing.
-Americans were either “Adams men”, “Jackson men”, or “Friends of Clay.”
-Martin Van Buren was alert to the political system changes.
-Election of 1824 convinced him of the need for a two-party system.
-Without discipline imposed by strong opposition, Repub party had
splintered. No candidate had electoral majority and the House of Reps
had decided the controversial outcome.
-Van Buren was convinced that Jackson could lead the new party.
-1828, this party (Democratic) nominated Jackson for Pres
and Calhoun for VP. His opponents – National Republicans;
rallied behind Adams.
-New political system started to take shape.

The Election of 1828:

-Vicious. National Repubs attacked Jackson’s moral character because of his past
duels and military executions; married wife, erroneously believing that her past
marriage was over. Jackson’s support said Adams was in debt, rich, and had a
prostitute.
-Adams’ party, by calling Jackson uneducated, appealed to Americans
because it made Jackson seem ordinary.
-Presidency, to Jackson supporters, was seen as a clash between democracy
and aristocracy.
-Jackson elected by a huge margin in electoral votes, though the popular vote was
close.
-Reflected strong sectional bases of the new parties. Adams – votes from New
England; Jackson – votes form South and Southwest.

Jackson in Office:
-Jackson – presidency was opposed because of alleged corruption.
 -Jackson’s first policy: “rotation in office,” which was removing officeholders
from rival party. AKA “spoils system.”
-Didn’t offer reasons for removing people.
-Stand on federal aid for internal improvements was much more controversial.
-Jackson felt that public officials used aid to woo supporters; rejected
federal support.
-1830, vetoed a bill providing money for a road in Kentucky.
-Strongest support was in the South.
-Indian Removal Act of 1830 enhanced his popularity there. Tariff issue,
however, tested South’s loyalty to him.
-When Adams was pres, some of Jackson’s Congress supporters
passed a high protective tariff that didn’t favor the South. Jackson got
the blame for this “Tariff of Abominations.”

Nullification:
Tariff of 1828 formed a rift between Jackson and Calhoun.
-Calhoun, among many issues, wanted to be President. Jackson promised he
would only have a first term, so Calhoun thought that he would succeed him;
would need support of the South to become Pres. Calhoun’s home state, S.C.,
suffered a decline in the 1820’s that voters blamed on tariffs.
-Calhoun believed that federal laws had to benefit everyone equally,
so he was against the tariffs, because they didn’t favor the South.
-Anonymously wrote the South Caroline Exposition and
Protest, which said that the 1828 tariff was unconstitutional
and that states could nullify it.
-Opposition to Southern tariffs also rested on the fear the North would pass
anti-slavery laws. 1831, a slave revolt by Nat Turner in VA took place, as well
as William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. South
Carolinians thought that tariffs would lead to a possible interference with
slavery.
-Jackson had to maintain key states like PA and soothe the South at the same
time. Two policies:
-Distribute surplus federal revenue to the states. Hoped it would
remove the sectional taint of the tariff.
-Ease down the high tariffs of 1828.
-Calhoun didn’t like the idea of federal revenue going to sates; thought that
that would be an excuse to maintain tariffs. Didn’t want to break openly with
Jackson; needed him to increase presidential prospects.
-Congress passed slightly reduced tariff rates in 1832, but they didn’t satisfy
S.C.
-Before 1832 tariff passage, two personal issues shook relations between Cal
and Jack.
-Peggy Eaton affair – Secretary of war married Peggy, who had a
reputation for flirting while married to a former husband. She and
husband were snubbed by cabinet members and their wives. Jackson
defended them, because his wife was slandered during his campaign.
-1830, Jackson got documents that Calhoun, as secretary of war
under Monroe, had urged that Jackson be punished for unauthorized
raid into Spanish Florida. Jackson thought Calhoun was trying to
destroy him.
 -Confrontation at dinner toast: “Our Union: It must be preserved.”
-1831, Calhoun acknowledged that he wrote the S.C. Exposition.
-1832, S.C. convention nullified the tariffs and forbade the collection of
customs duties within the state.
-Jackson called nullification an “abominable doctrine.” Began to send
arms.
-1832, said he would lower tariffs, but also said that nullification was
unconstitutional.
-“Olive branch and the sword” – Olive branch was the tariff of 1833 (AKA
Compromise Bill), which provided for reduction of duties between 1833 and
1942. The sword was the Force Bill – authorized Pres to use arms to collect
customs duties in SC.
-SC didn’t abandon nullification principal—nullified Force Bill-accepted
Compromise Bill, took back nullification of the tariffs.

The Bank Veto and the Election of 1832:

-Jackson saw gap widening between the rich and the poor. Didn’t have a problem with
rich getting rich with hard work, but believed that wealthy often got richer with favors
(“privileges”) from corrupt legislatures. Bad financial choices in early Pres led him to
suspect banks, paper money, and monopolies. Saw Bank of US as guilty.
-Bank of US – 20 year charter from Congress (1816). BoUS restrained printing and
lending money by demanding the redemption of bank notes in specie. Could lend lots
of money too.
-Widely blamed for Panic of 1819.
- Only remotely controlled by the government. Stockholders: private citizens. Located
in Philadelphia, not Washington, even though chartered by Congress.
-President: Nicholas Biddle; wanted to keep bank above politics.
-Biddle received a bill to recharter the bank. Jackson vetoed it and said it was
a privileged monopoly.
-Jackson ran for presidency again in 1832 with Van Buren as running mate. Henry
Clay ran for the National Republicans, showing off his American System of protective
tariffs, national banking, and federal support for internal improvements.
-Jackson won – hugely popular. Goal: finish off the BoUS.

The Bank Controversy and the Second Party System, 1833-1840: Jackson vetoing and rechartering the
Bank of the US – controversial. Then Jackson took steps to get rid of the bank forever. Stirred
opposition in Whig party and stimulated interest in politics. Lead to Panic of 1837 – faced Martin Van
Buren’s presidency. 1840 – Whig and Democratic parties divided: banks or no banks. There were
“notes” redeemable in specie, but no official currency. Fueled economic development – made it easier
for farmers to get loans. But if note depreciated after its issuance – wage owners not paid in specie
suffered. Paper encouraged speculative economy – raised profits and risks.

The War on the Bank:

-Jackson wouldn’t let the bank die a natural death in 1836.
-Biddle tried to get further bank loans and credit, knowing that Jackson would attack
the bank.
-Jackson began to remove federal deposits from the Bank, placing them in state
banks.
 -Removal policy enabled state banks to increase their lending capacity with
paper money.
-Jackson hated paper money, though.
-Decided to sharply limit the number of state banks that could become
home to federal deposits.
-State banks clamored for more revenue, and the number of
state-bank depositories multiplied. 23 by the end of the year!
Called “pet banks,” because they were usually selected based
on their loyalty to the Democrats.
-Paper money from pet banks and influx of specie – economy in
expansion. Jackson forced to sigh Deposit Act – increased the
number of deposit banks and loosened federal control of them.
-Split of Democratic Party created by advocates of soft and hard money.
-Saw BoUS as evil for different reasons.
-Hard money advocates – faction in NY called Locofocos. Grew out of
workingmen’s parties in northern cities; wanted free education, no
debt imprisonment, and a 10 hour workday.
-Absorbed by Democratic party.

The Rise of Whig Opposition:

-National Repubs became the Whigs in Jackson’s 2 nd term. Whigs developed broader
base in the South and North than Nat Reps had.
-Joined by those who were alienated by Jackson’s policies.
-Nullification, pet banks, et cetera…
-Reformers in the North also opposed Jackson. Wanted slavery and sale of liquor to
end, better education and public morality.
-Temperance and public-school reformers went to Whigs
-Whigs committed to Clay’s American System implied an acceptance of active
intervention of government to change society; aligned them with reformers.
-Reformers – got Protestant, native-born workers to support Whigs. Distrusted
immigrants, especially Irish. Irish driven to Democrats.
-Greatest Whig strength – Anti-Masonry.
-Whigs attracted commercial farmers, planters, merchants, and bankers in the North
and South. In the North, they attracted reformers, clergymen, Anti-Masons, and
manufacturers. In the South they appealed to former nullificationists.
-Whigs saw Jackson as a dictator (“King Andrew I”). Whigs were associated with the
American patriots who had opposed King George III in 1776.

The Election of 1836:

-Democrats ran Van Buren, because he was Jackson’s favorite and the heir to
Jackson.
-Whigs couldn’t agree on a single candidate. 4 anti-Buren candidates from different
parts of the country arose, three of them being Whigs. Daniel Webster –
Massachussetts, William Henry Harrison – Ohio, WP Magnum (North Carolina); one
Democrat – Hugh Lawson White (Tennessee).
-Democrats said the Whigs were trying to divide the vote so that no candidate would
receive a majority and that the House of Reps would decide the winner with deals and
bargains.
-Whigs had no real strategy.
 -Van Buren won, though the popular vote was close, notably in the South; wone 2/3rds
in 1832, but barely half in 1836.

The Panic of 1837:

-Severe depression struck early into Van Buren’s presidency.
-Speculative boom of 1835 and ’36 - came from Jackson’s putting money into
state banks, thus allowing the number of banks to double, the value of bank
notes in circulation to triple, and the prices of goods and land to soar.
-Prices began to fall in 1837; banks stopped specie payments. Economy rose,
then crashed in 1830. BoUS failed. Biddle was charged with fraud. Specie
payments suspended again.
-This depression was greater than 1819. Workers saw wages drop by 1/3.
-Many turned to William Miller, who convinced many that the world
would end October 22, 1843.
-Origins of the depression national and international.
-July 1836 – Specie Circular, provided that only specie was accepted
for public lands. Believed that paper money was bad. Hoped the
Circular would reverse the effects of the Deposit Act. Ended
speculative boom.
-Britain checked specie flow from its shores to the US in 1836 to
restrain outflow of British investment.

The Search for Solutions:

-Van Buren called “Martin Van Ruin,” and in 1838 the Whigs took the governorship and
most legislative seats in Van Buren’s own state, NY.
-VB called for the creation of an Independent Treasury: no depositing money into
banks; the government would instead hold its revenues.
-Signed on July 4th, called America’s second Declaration.
-Independent Treasury reflected the alliance between government and
banking. Failed to address banking on state levels—more than 900 banks.
Lent money to farmers and businessmen.
-Whigs continued endorsing banks to spur econmonic development, blaming the
depression on the Circular. Democrats blamed the depression on banks and paper
money and wanted hard money.

The Election of 1840:

-Van Buren gained renomination.
-Whigs settled on one candidate, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler (VA senator)
for VP.
-Harrison picked b/c he had few enemies; Democrats called him a cider-
sipping “Old Granny.” Whigs used that to their advantage, saying that Harrison
was a frontiersmen, gave out log-cabin cider, etc. Said Van Buren was a
despot.
-Harrison given a clear victory

The Second Party System Matures:

-Depression and long-cabin campaign brought voters to the polls. Second party system
reached a high plateau in 1840 and stayed there for over a decade. Politicians
continued to appeal to ordinary people.
The Rise of Popular Religion: Religious impulses reinforced American democracy and liberty, according
to Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Said that religion was the “political institution” of US.
Americans demanded accessible politics, also demanded accessible religion. Ministers – plain words
favored by Americans. Americans wanted to be in charge of their own destinies. Put aside Calvinist
creed (some were meant for salvation, others not) and believed that everyone could get to heaven.
Known as Second Great Awakening.

The Second Great Awakening:

-Began in Connecticut during the 1790’s and spread throughout the nation. At first
Congregationalists and Presbyterians dominated the revivals. Then went through
changes among frontier states, such as camp meetings (huge revivals were lots of
people claimed that the Second Coming of Jesus was near).
-Cane Ridge, camp meeting that had “exercises” where people would roll
around and jerk.
-Most successful revivalists were normal people, not learned ministers.
-Most successful on the frontier: Methodists, the largest Protestant denomination. Said
that religion was a matter of the heart, not head.
-Revivals disrupted custom, but promoted law, order, and morality on the frontier.
Basic unit of discipline was the “class,” a group of people who met weekly after camp
meetings broke up to encourage morality; didn’t want drunkenness, fighting,
fornication, etc.

Eastern Revivals:
-Second Great Awakening began to shift to the East in the 1720’s. New York “Burned-
Over District” home to most revivals. Americans wanted a new religious experience.

-Charles G. Finney – Presbyterian minister who conducted many revivals. Greatest

“harvest” from Rochester.
-Rochester was a citywide revival among all denominations, and Finney
pioneered cooperation between them all.
-Finney came up with speedier conversions, such as the “anxious seat”
(people became objects of prayer) and the “protracted meeting” (went on for a
week).
-Finney different from Jonathan Edwards, who saw revivals as works of God.
Finney said revivals were human creations. Also rejected Calvinism, despite
being a Presbyterian. He said that humans didn’t have an inclination to sin and
said that they could choose whether or not to sin and could even live perfectly
(perfectionism). Made him controversial.
-Appealed to the “self-made” individual.
-Finney had a dignified style that made him appeal to merchants, lawyers, and
small manufactures in Northern towns and cities.
-Finney recognized the participation of women in the Awakening.
-Women converts outnumbered men 2 to 1.
-Brought their husbands to convert.

Critics of Revivals: The Unitarians:

-Unitarians doubted revivals could save souls.
-Basic doctrine: Christ wasn’t divine; gained acceptance among religious liberals.
-Saw revivals as uncouth emotional exhibitions.
 -Revivalists and Unitarians both rejected Calvinism, and both thought that people could
change.

The Rise of Mormonism:

-Very controversial.
-Founder Joseph Smith claimed that a vision led him to a book of revelation and to
stones to translate it. Completed the translation of the Book of Mormon in 1827.
-Book tells the story of an ancient Hebrew prophet whose descendants came
to America, and that Jesus had appeared and performed miracles in the New
World. The descendants of Lehi, the prophet, had departed from the Lord’s
ways.
-Gained many followers; positioned America at the center of Christian history.
-Smith and followers moved to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, where they built a model
city, Nauvoo.
-Moved to these areas to draw closer to the Indians to convert them, and to
escape persecution.
-Smith said he received another revelation in 1843-polygyny, though he didn’t publicly
claim it to be a doctrine.
-Gentiles (non-Mormons) were extremely hostile to the religion; persuaded Smith that
Mormons should separate themselves from society.

The Shakers:
-Founder and leader: Mother Anne Lee.
-Name came from a convulsive religious dance that was part of their ceremony.
-Settled in New Lebanon, NY. Able artisans. Invented clothespin and circular saw.
-Didn’t like materialism.
-Abstained from sex.
-Doctrines from Lee’s trances and visions. Said that God was both male and female.
-Would have quickly gone extinct because of abstinence, though they survived
because they found converts and orphans to join their communities.
-Lived apart from society.

The Age of Reform: Men and women tried to improve society. Abolition, women’s rights, temperance,
better treatment of criminals and the insane, public education, and the establishment of utopias. Gave
women and blacks some say, as they were excluded from politics. Reformers sometimes cooperated
with political parties (especially Whigs), but gave their loyalty to causes, not parties. Saw social
problems as clashes between good and evil – reformers thought they were always on God’s side;
fueled by religious revivalism. Saw drunkenness, ignorance, and inequality as sins. Reform movements
lacked national organizations. New England and parts of the Midwest settled by New Englanders –
reform activity. South – suppressed reform.

The War on Liquor:

-Want of temperance increased during the second half of the nineteenth century.
-Saw alcohol as a growing problem.
-Annual per capita consumption of alcohol rose until it exceeded seven
gallons.
-Alcohol seen as male indulgence that hurt the family.
-Leeman Beecher, Connecticut revivalist, thundered against alcohol.
-Year later, Protestants created the American Temperance Society.
-First temperance organization nationally.
 -Headed by men, though 1/3 to ½ of members were women.
-Demanded total abstinence.
-Reformers targeted moderate drinkers in the labor classes, who drank as a pastime.
-Factory owners endorsed temperance; wanted sober workers.
-Temperance agitation sprang up after the Panic, in the form of Washington
Temperance Societies.
-The members were usually mechanics and laborers, not ministers and
manufacturers.
-Thought that God would help the economy if people didn’t drink.
-Temperance took flight.
-1838, MA stopped selling small amounts of alcohol to restrict individual
drinkers.
-1851, Maine banned the buying and making of drinking.

Public-School Reform:
-School reformers wanted to encourage orderliness in the common people.
-Said schools had to ready children for industrial society.
-Horace Mann, most influential reformer for schools.
-Became first secretary of his states newly-created board of education.
-Wanted to make schools paid for by the states.
-Wanted to extend the school term from two to ten months.
-Wanted standardized books; very structured curriculum.
-School reformers wanted to combat ignorance and cement uniform values.
-McGuffey readers created a common curriculum; emphasized industry,
honesty, sobriety, and patriotism.
-Made few gains in South, but North took to it.
-MA passed the first compulsory school law.
-Success didn’t come easily.
-Immigrants, especially Irish Catholics, said that public schools were anti-Irsh
and anti-Catholic.
-Rural and urban areas needed kids to help work.
-Supporters of school reform
-Manufactures, because they saw that school would teach punctuality.
-Native-born Americans, who wanted immigrants to conform.
-Black children rarely got schooling, and when they did, they were treated so badly that
blacks often preferred segregated schools.

Abolition:
-Abolitionist sentiment declined in the early 19 th century.
-American Colonization Society proposed gradual emancipation and the return of
blacks to Africa.
-Thought that blacks didn’t belong in American society.
-Few southerners were willing to free slaves.
-Economy rested on cotton
-Blacks opposed slavery.
-Formed abolition societies.
-Benjamin Lundy, Quaker, began Genius of Universal Emancipation, which advocated
that the slave trade be outlawed, that the 3/5ths compromise be repealed, and that
slavery should be abolished.
-William Lloyd Garrison was the editor.
 -Launched The Liberator. Wanted immediate emancipation with no money
paid back to southerners. Very radical.
-Gained support from black abolitionists.
-Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth both lectured against slavery.
-Relations not always good between black and white abolitionists.
-White abolitionists wanted no slavery, but not social equality.
-Protestant churches thought that slavery was a sin, but rallied more behind
temperance.
-Should abolitionists campaign as a party?
-Formed Liberty party.
-Women’s role in the abolitionist movement.
-Women active in the movement in societies run by men.
-Feminists Sarah and Angelina Grimke wanted to women’s rights to be
acknowledged with blacks’ rights.
-Split abolitionist movement.

Women’s Rights:
-Women’s life had many contradictions.
-Could not vote, had no right to own property when married. But the reform
movement gave them opportunity for public activity without challenging the
belief that their sphere was in the home.
-Many feminists didn’t want to attack sexual inequality at first.
-Leading feminists: Grimke sisters, Quaker Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and
Abby Kelley.
-Usually women’s rights advocates gravitated to Garrison, who was a
huge feminist.
-Lucy Stone became the first abolitionist to lecture just on women’s
rights.
-At the World’s Anti-Slavery Conference, Lucretia Mott and other
women were not allowed to be seated. Also made a sharp impression
on Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
-Mott and Stanton organized women’s rights convention;
wrote Seneca Falls Declaration.

Penitentiaries and Asylums:

-Reformers wanted to combat poverty, crime, and insanity by establishing institutions.
-Poverty and crime increased during the early-nineteenth-century. Led to
reformers wanting to figure out what caused crime.
-To cure crime, reformers created substitutes for parental discipline, the penitentiary.
-Reformers sought solitary confinement for prisoners.
-Poor people also treated better. Almshouses and workhouses for the poor were built.
-Dorothea Dix investigated jails and almshouses and found that insane people were
treated badly. Sought to change that. Encouraged the building of insane asylums to get
crazy people help, and not just imprison them in regular jails.

Utopian Communities:
-The belief that people could live perfectly grew into the development of utopian
societies.
-Founded by intellectuals as alternatives to the competitive economy.
-Interest in these communities came from Britain.
 -British Robert Owen founded New Harmony in Indiana.
-Thought that if social arrangements could be perfected, people would
be better. He felt that people were shaped by their environments.
-Others came: Hopedale, Fruitlands, and Brook Farm.
-Brook Farm, near Boston, was the creation of transcendentalists, who had
started as Unitarians but then decided to change Christianity by saying that
men and women had infinite spiritual capacity.
-Attracted writers such as Emerson and Hawthorne.
-Most controversial: Oneida community in NY, established by John Humphrey
Noyes.
-Communistic; also believed that everyone was married to each other.
-Noyes was seen by critics as crazy, and Southerners cited him as an
example of what would happen if slavery ended.
-Oneida survived long after other utopias, like Brook Farm, collapsed.
-Oneidans had to stay together, as they were shunned by
society.
-Utopians clearly exemplified the idealism and hopefulness during the Age of Jackson