Hp 4: the Jeffersonian Era

HP 4: THE JEFFERSONIAN ERA

& THE AGE OF JACKSON

REVIEW OF PERIOD 4: 1800-1848

PART A - THE JEFFERSONIAN ERA

Thomas Jefferson’s election over John Adams was the first transition from one political party to another. Unlike the Federalists, the Democratic Republicans supported a limited, frugal government. Jefferson’s primary goals were reductions in the central government, the national debt, the excise tax, and the military. He also tried to reign in the Federalist-dominated judiciary. He encouraged the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, denounced the Supreme Court’s decision inMarbury v. Madison, and supported the impeachment of two Federalist judges. Despite the triumph ofJohn Marshallin strengthening the Supreme Court, Jefferson fought to restrain its influence. The overall thrust of his governance was reducing the power of the central government and increasing the agrarian, states’ rights influence of his constituents.

JEFFERSON’S SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

Among Jefferson’s greatest achievements was his extension of the “empire of liberty” in 1803 with the purchase of Louisiana. This 828,000-square-mile deal was not only a great bargain at $15 million, it also secured navigation on the Mississippi River, doubled the size of the nation, and eliminated France as a potentially dangerous neighbor. Despite his strict-constructionist views, Jefferson simply could not pass up such an opportunity.

He failed, however, to protect the national interest when war resumed between Great Britain and France in 1803, and both nations again interfered with American commerce. In addition, Britain began the impressment of American sailors into its navy. This practice reached a crisis in 1807 during theChesapeake-Leopard Affairwhen British forces killed or wounded more than twenty U.S. Navy sailors and impressed several others. To dampen war fever, Jefferson asked Congress to pass theEmbargo Act, which withheld trade from the world until America’s rights as a neutral nation were recognized. The embargo backfired, however, because it throttled American trade and pitted the commercial Northeast against the agrarian South. Jefferson retreated to the less restrictive Non-Intercourse Act as he left office, but impressment continued, with six thousand Americans seized between 1808 and 1811.

THE WAR OF 1812

The maritime problems carried over to the presidency of James Madison, as the British continued to seize ships, impress sailors, and encourage Indian resistance in the Old Northwest. Despite Madison’s modification of the embargo with Macon’s Bill No. 2 and the victory over Native Americans at the Battle of Tippecanoe, war pressures mounted. Finally in June 1812, Madison asked for a declaration of war against Britain. TheWar Hawksin his party were delighted, but the Federalists had grave doubts. Rejecting the argument that an armed force would advance America’s maritime rights, the Federalists opposed the war in Congress. For many New Englanders, this was “Mr. Madison’s War“ and not their fight.

The War of 1812 was a military disappointment for the United States. Despite some American success on the Great Lakes and several more victories over Native Americans, the British army and navy outclassed U.S. forces. Poorly prepared, equipped, and led, the American military failed to invade Canada and suffered the grievous humiliation of seeing Washington, D.C., burned in August 1814. Opposition in New England prevented a truly national effort in the conflict. Only defensive victories in 1814 and 1815 at Baltimore, Plattsburg, andNew Orleansmaintained American morale and prevented major American concessions at the peace conference in Ghent, Belgium, in 1814.

The war ended with theTreaty of Ghentrestoring the status quo. Neither side achieved its objectives, and each accepted the draw. The war did produce unintended consequences, however. Saddled with its wartime behavior, the Federalist Party collapsed. The Federalists’ seeming lack of patriotism and the Hartford Convention sealed the party’s political fate. The conflict also ignited political and economic nationalism, with Congress proposing a new National Bank, protective tariffs, and internal improvements. With the demise of the opposing political party, the “Era of Good Feelings” was at hand.

THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS

The early postwar years were a time of peace, political tranquility, and economic consensus. Without effective partisan opposition, President Monroe and the Democratic Republicans (by now known merely as “Republicans“) dominated the political agenda. The nation embarked on a nationalistic celebration marked by the chartering of theSecond National Bankand partial implementation of the American System of internal improvements. John Marshall and the Supreme Court contributed to the nationalistic spirit with a series of decisions that buttressed the power of the national government over the states and created a favorable business environment. In cases such asMcCulloch v. Maryland,Dartmouth College v. Woodward, andGibbons v. Ogden, nationalistic, mercantile principles were promoted and upheld.

The United States also strengthened its position in foreign relations. America warned Europe against future colonization in the western hemisphere with theMonroe Doctrine. The country repaired its relationship with Britain, as the two nations reached agreements on Great Lakes disarmament and on parts of the Canadian boundary. In 1819, the United States and Spain agreed to theAdams-Onís Treaty, by which America purchased Florida, defined the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase, and gained a tenuous claim to the Pacific Northwest.

THE GOOD FEELINGS END

The nationalism and unity did not last, however, as thePanic of 1819and Missouri’s statehood divided the nation. The panic hit western farmers particularly hard, and many blamed the newly chartered Second National Bank for their hardships. Resentment over the Bank’s political and economic power divided mercantile easterners and agrarian westerners. More ominously, slavery reemerged as a political issue in 1819 when the Missouri territory sought admission to the Union as a slave state. AlthoughHenry Claycobbled together theMissouri Compromiseand the crisis subsided, neither northerners nor the southerners were completely satisfied with Clay’s solution. By the early 1820s, the Era of Good Feelings was a rapidly fading memory.

PART B - THE AGE OF JACKSON

The presidential election of 1824 brought an end to the postwar political tranquility. With five regional candidates running, no one received an electoral majority. In a decision by the House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams was elected president after gaining support from Henry Clay, a rival candidate. Andrew Jackson, who had won a plurality of the popular vote, claimed a “corrupt bargain“ between Clay and Adams had denied him the presidency. Adams spent four difficult years in the White House, living with the corruption charge and trying to implement his program of economic nationalism.

JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

Andrew Jackson won a presidential rematch with John Quincy Adams in 1828. His inauguration in 1829 marked the beginning of Jacksonian democracy which, in part, represented a return to the principles of Jefferson. Jacksonians glorified individualism, declared war on privilege, vowed to restrain the federal government, and promoted states’ rights—all this with an eye to the interests of southern and western farmers.

In the sprit of egalitarianism, most states abandoned their property requirements for voting and the percentage of eligible voters that participated in elections skyrocketed. Jackson spoke for southern, agrarian interests whose political voices had been muted in the 1820s. While Jacksonians claimed to protect democracy from the forces of corruption and privilege, their vision was rather narrow by present-day standards. Women, blacks, and Native Americans were not part of Jackson’s coalition, and his policies actually worked against their political and economic interests.

Jackson’s attack on the forces of political and economic privilege centered on the battle to recharter the National Bank in 1832. The Second Bank was an effective economic institution that provided a depository for federal funds, promoted a sound currency, and regulated “wild cat“ banks around the nation. On the other hand, the Bank was unpopular in the West where it was viewed as a tool of the eastern mercantile elite. Jackson vetoed the recharter bill on the grounds that the Bank benefited only the rich and was an unconstitutional federal intrusion into the affairs of the states. He also realized that Henry Clay andNicholas Biddleproposed the recharter as the centerpiece of a plan to deny him another term.

CHALLENGES TO JACKSON

After vetoing the Bank, Jackson removed all government funds and placed them into “pet banks,“ that is, state banks withDemocratic Partyconnections. These banks helped finance a real estate boom that resulted in a five-fold increase in the sale of land. In order to dampen the resulting inflation, Jackson approved theSpecie Circularin 1836, which cooled prices but also helped cause thePanic of 1837.

The tariff of 1828 also created a major crisis during Jackson’s presidency. Although a defender of states’ rights and low tariffs, Jackson would not accept South Carolina’s defiance of federal tariff law in 1832 and 1833. The crisis had been brewing since 1828, when theTariff of Abominationswas enacted and South Carolina issuedExposition and Protest. The tariff rose to an all-time high, and South Carolina declared a right to nullify the tax, which it deemed to be unconstitutional.John C. Calhoun, the leader of thenullificationmovement, drew heavily on Madison’s and Jefferson’s Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of the 1790s and on the compact theory of government.

Andrew Jackson challenged South Carolina’s refusal to collect the tariff. He asked Congress to authorize a Force Bill to coerce the nullifiers. Unable to win over other southern states to the cause, Calhoun sought a compromise. In 1833, Henry Clay provided a bill that gradually lowered the tariff in exchange for repeal of Jackson’s Force Bill.

Jackson accepted the compromise and credit for preserving the Union. He realized, however, that the real issue was not the tariff but the South’s growing fear of federal power in regulating its way of life. He predicted that future conflicts would emerge.

INDIAN REMOVAL

Andrew Jackson continued a policy of Indian removal that began in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson wanted to eliminate the tribes living east of the Mississippi River, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. He made Indian removal his top priority in his first message to Congress. In 1830, he signed theIndian Removal Act, which eventually resulted in the exchange of one hundred million acres of Indian lands east of the Mississippi in return for thirty-two million acres in Oklahoma and $68 million in cash payments. Through a series of treaties, 45,000 Native Americans were transported west, with the most tragic exodus occurring in 1838 during theTrail of Tears.

THE WHIGS AND PANIC OF 1837

Jackson’s use of presidential power and especially his numerous vetoes prompted the rise of a second party system. The opposition to Jackson took the nameWhigs, in reference to those in England who had opposed the tyranny of the British crown. Whigs believed in economic expansion through an activist government, with a program that included recharter of the National Bank and support for the American System’s protective tariffs and internal improvements.

Jackson retired in 1837, and Martin Van Buren, his hand-picked successor, moved into the White House. ThePanic of 1837struck almost immediately and destroyed Van Buren’s presidency. By 1840, with the economy still flattened, the nation selected its first Whig president, William Henry Harrison. Tragically, Harrison died only one month after his inauguration, and Vice President John Tyler took over. As a life-long Democrat, Tyler was an ersatz Whig. “His Accidency“ rebuffed Henry Clay, vetoed the National Bank bill, and refused to raise the tariff. By the end of Tyler’s term, his entire Cabinet had resigned, and the House of Representatives explored his impeachment.