5thPresident: James Monroe (1817-1825)

Domestic Policy and Significance/Impact / Foreign Policy and Significance/Impact
  • 2nd president to take a tour of the US (Washington was the 1st)  the “Era of Good Feeling” – dubbed by a journalist…regarding Monroe’s time in office
  • Compromise of 1820 major issue
  • Missouri admitted as a state  slavery was legal
  • Maine admitted as a state  free state
  • All current and future states north and west of Missouri = free
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  • Introduced Monroe Doctrine – basically, America can’t be colonized by any European power
  • Established America’s individual identity from Britain by turning them down on their offer to present the Monroe Doctrine as partners

Significant Facts / Events During Term and Significance/Impact
  • Democratic- Republican
  • He ran for 2 terms- unopposed the 2nd time. Very popular
  • In the 2nd election of 1820, he won all but one of the Electoral College votes. The one he didn’t win was from a New Hampshire elector- he voted for Secretary of State John Quincy Adams
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  • 1818- Frankenstein is published by Mary Shelley
  • 1820- The Venus de Milo is excavated
  • 1822- Jean-Francois Champollion deciphers the Rosetta Stone

6th President: John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)

Domestic Policy and Significance/Impact / Foreign Policy and Significance/Impact
  • Believed different sections of nation would prosper & specialize in diff. industries
  • In his 1st annual speech to Congress, he called for:
  • Road & canal building- by fed. Gov’t
  • National bank
  • National university
  • Signed a tariff bill into a law- “Tariff of Abominations”
  • Protected American manufacturers
  • Raised the prices on many goods, particularly in the south
  • Assured that Adams wouldn’t be reelected
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  • Primary author of the Monroe Doctrine
  • negotiated @ the end of the War of 1812
  • Set policies about colonies that were newly independent in the US
  • Didn’t accomplish much
  • Jackson’s congressional supporters denied him necessary recourses to hire diplomats

Significant Facts / Events During Term and Significance/Impact
  • Democratic- Republican
  • first son of a president to be elected (son of John Adams)
  • election of 1824- Jackson vs. Adams
  • Jackson won popular vote and electoral college votes than the other 2 candidates- Adams was 2nd
  • Jackson lacked full majority of votes
  • Went to HOR- Clay supported Adams. Got elected
  • Jacksonians kept a watchful eye on Adams throughout entire term.
  • Next election, Jackson dominated the election
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  • 1825- Construction on Erie Canal was completed
  • opened cheap transport access to Midwest
  • 1825- Bolivia & Uruguay become independent nations
  • 1826- James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Last of the Mohicans
  • 1828- Noah Webster publishes a Dictionary of American English
  • 1827- Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niepce develops a stable photographic process
  • 1828-9- War begins w/ Russia & the Ottoman Empire
  • 1829- Chang and Eng, the "Siamese Twins," visit Boston

7th President: Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)

Domestic Policy and Significance/Impact / Foreign Policy and Significance/Impact
  • populist
  • threatened SC @ gunpoint if they wouldn’t give him the funds after they nullified a federal tariff that SC didn’t approve of. SC backed down
  • vetoed the Whigs in Congress’s bill to charter the 2nd Bank of the US.
  • 1st time a pres. Justified a veto on policy grounds instead of constitutionality
  • had “kitchen cabinet” (informal group of advisors) instead of a “cabinet”
  • able to purge anyone who supported his hated VP- John Calhoun
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  • instituted Indian Removal Act of 1830- relocate Indians (as a result of TX joining US)
  • 1830- Jackson negotiated trade and shipping rights w/ British West Indies
  • 1836- issues w France from Napoleonic Wars reached conclusion

Significant Facts / Events During Term and Significance/Impact
  • Democrat
  • 1824- Won more electoral and popular votes than all of his opponents. However, lack of majority gave HOR power to decide who was to be president. (chose Adams) He ran again and won by a landslide in 1828
  • re-election- he had a connection to the working man (guaranteed his re-election)
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  • 1829- 1st modern police force established in London- London’s Metropolitan Police Force
  • 1831- Nat Turner’s Rebellion
  • 1831- Samuel Smith writes song: My Country, ‘Tis of Thee
  • 1833- bill passed that abolished slavery in Britain by British Parliament (to take effect in 1 yr.)
  • 1834-1838- Spanish Civil War
  • 1835- Democracy in America is published by Frenchman Alexis De Tocqueville
  • 1835- James Smithson leaves endowment to US gov’t for a Smithsonian Institute (he had never been to US before)
  • 1836- Texas declares independence from Mexico. TX them (Mexicans) @ the Alamo

8thPresident: Martin Van Buren (1837- 1841)

Domestic Policy and Significance/Impact / Foreign Policy and Significance/Impact
  • maintained Jacksonian policies  economic downturn  Panic of 1837  not re-elected
  • did nothing to solve/stop the Panic of 1837
  • very late in his term he finally created a law to establish an independent treasury
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  • enforced Indian Removal Act of 1830- Cherokee & others were removed
  • AKA “Trail of Tears” (forced to go west of Mississippi)
  • Death of ¼ of Cherokee population
  • Didn’t want to go to war w/ Britain

Significant Facts / Events During Term and Significance/Impact
  • Democrat
  • Ran 4 times for presidency- won 1st time & lost others
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  • 1837- 1st British monarch = Queen Victoria
  • 1837- Samuel Morse patents the telegraph
  • 1839- Charles Goodyear “vulcanizes” rubber
  • 1840- new musical instrument created by Antoine Joseph Sax
  • 1839-1843- Opium War being b/w China and Britain