The Jacksonian EraStudy Guide

Directions: On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following questions in short form.

  1. What have historians often called the period in American history from 1824 to 1850?
  2. For whom was this period named?
  3. What change occurred in the political life of the American nation during the Age of Jackson?
  4. What three factors contributed to increased popular participation in state and national politics in the years following the War of 1812?
  5. Define the franchise.
  6. How did Andrew Jackson personify (represent) this new “democratic spirit”?
  7. How did Jackson achieve fame?
  8. How did Jackson achieve wealth?
  9. What did Jackson’s economic success suggest about opportunity in the American society?
  10. What did Jackson’s election as president indicate to boys growing up in poor white American families?
  11. What reform movement was sparked by the Jacksonian Era’s new democratic spirit?
  12. As democracy was increasing for white males during the Jacksonian Era, what situation were American Indians facing?
  13. What four things characterized the changing nature of American politics “in the age of the common man”?
  14. By the mid-1820s, what type of suffrage existed in the West?
  15. Define suffrage.
  16. Define universal white manhood suffrage.
  17. What two types of voting requirement did universal white manhood suffrage eliminate?
  18. During the Jacksonian period, what action did many of the older states take regarding voter qualifications?
  19. How did these changes affect the number of eligible voters in the older states?
  20. How did the increase in the number of eligible voters affect voter participation during the Age of Jackson?
  21. What presidential election do historians believe attracted the highest percentage of voter participation?
  22. What percentage of Americans voted in the 1840 election?
  23. What factor contributed to the high percentage of voter participation in the 1840 election?
  24. What campaign techniques did both major political parties use by the 1840 election?
  25. What political party that had been severely weakened by the War of 1812 completely disappeared in the 1820s?
  26. How did the emergence of Andrew Jackson as a national leader affect the Democratic-Republican Party?
  27. Who led the Whig Party?
  28. What third party was organized in the early 1850s and what was this party’s core belief?
  29. Define nativism.
  30. What pledge did the Know-Nothings take?
  31. In which states did the Know-Nothing Party enjoy its greatest success?
  32. What did President Jackson use to reward his political supporters?
  33. What was the spoils system?
  34. What was the major criticism of the spoils system?
  35. What type of reform did Jackson consider the spoils system?
  36. What did Jackson call the spoils system, and why did Jackson believe it benefited a democracy like the United States?
  37. How else did Andrew Jackson champion democracy?
  38. Why did Jackson distrust the Bank of the United States?
  39. Who made up the Eastern elite?
  40. What action did President Jackson take in 1832 on the bill to recharter the BUS?
  41. What is a presidential veto?
  42. The presidential veto is part of what Constitutional system?
  43. How did President Jackson's veto of the bank recharter bill differ from all previous presidential vetoes?
  44. What right did Jackson claim for the president in his message vetoing recharter of the Second BUS?
  45. How did Andrew Jackson's bank veto make the presidential veto part of the legislative or lawmaking process?
  46. What precedent was set by President Jackson's bank veto?
  47. What became the central issue in the presidential election of 1832?
  48. How did President Jackson interpret his overwhelming victory in the 1832 presidential election?
  49. What did Jackson make a major goal of his second term as president?
  50. Did President Jackson succeed in destroying the power of the Second Bank of the United States?
  51. What other factor contributed to increased popular participation in state and national politics during the Jacksonian Era?
  52. What did sectional interests mean?
  53. What was the primary sectional incident of Andrew Jackson’s presidency?
  54. What did the Tariff of 1832 do?
  55. What is a tariff?
  56. What two rights did the leaders of South Carolina argue the states possessed?
  57. What did it mean for a state to nullify a federal law?
  58. What did the term secede mean?
  59. What actions did South Carolina take to oppose the Tariff of 1832?
  60. How did these actions taken by South Carolina threaten the United States?
  61. How did President Jackson view South Carolina’s nullification of the Tariff of 1832?
  62. What action did President Jackson threaten to take in response to South Carolina’s nullification of the tariff?
  63. What action did Congress take in 1833?
  64. What effect did the compromise tariff have?
  65. During the Nullification Crisis, what position did President Jackson take?
  66. During the Nullification Crisis, what position did South Carolina take?
  67. What did the Nullification Crisis suggest for the years ahead?
  68. What group of Americans was hurt by the reforms of Jacksonian democracy?
  69. As white Americans moved westward during the Jacksonian period, what two things happened to the American Indians?
  70. What was the result of conflicts between American settlers and Indian nations in the Southeast and old Northwest?
  71. What president proposed the Indian Removal Act in 1830?
  72. What did the Indian Removal Act do?
  73. What was the Trail of Tears?
  74. What happened to nearly one-fourth of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears?
  75. What other Southeastern tribes were forced to move to present-day Oklahoma during the Jacksonian period?
  76. Name another reform movement that developed during the Jacksonian period.
  77. What was the main goal of the women’s rights movement?
  78. When and where did the women’s rights movement begin?
  79. What right for women did the Seneca Falls Declaration support?
  80. Who were two of the most important leaders of the women’s suffrage movement?
  81. Did the women’s suffrage movement continue after the Civil War?