Chapter 10

THE TRIUMPH OF WHITE

MEN’S DEMOCRACY

America Past and Present

Eighth Edition
Divine  Breen  Fredrickson  Williams  Gross  Brand

Copyright 2007, Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman

 Democracy in Theory
and Practice
 Democracy became preferred description of
American politics in 1820s and 1830s
 In democracy, the people were sovereign and
could do no wrong
 Traditional ideas of deference declined further
 Equality of opportunity all important; the resulting
inequalities of reward not really considered
 America became society of winners and losers
 Democracy and Society
 Egalitarian expectations despite growing
economic inequality
 No distinctive domestic servant class
 No class distinctions in dress
 Economic gap widened between propertied and
labor classes; this was overlooked because
legal equality of all white men still radical by
European standards
 Egalitarian attack on licensed professions like
medicine
 Popular press was the source of information
and opinion
 Democratic Culture
 Artists’ audience was broad citizenry of
democracy, not refined elite
 Romanticism in America appealed to feelings
and intuitions of ordinary Americans
 Popular literature sensationalized
– Genres included Gothic horror and romantic fiction
– Much popular literature written by and for women
– Melodrama dominated popular theater
 Democratic Culture
 By 1830s, subject of paintings switched from
great events and people to scenes from
everyday life
 Architectural style reflected the tenets of
ancient Greek democracy
 Purpose of art in democratic society was to
encourage virtue and proper sentiment
– Landscape painters believed representations of
untamed nature would elevate popular taste and
convey moral truth
 Only a few truly avant-garde, romantic artists,
like Edgar Allan Poe
Democratic Political Institutions:
Politics of Universal
Male Suffrage
 Most states adopted universal white male suffrage
by the 1820s
 Many appointed offices made elective
 Professional politicians and stable, statewide party
organizations emerged
 Politicians like Martin Van Buren promoted benefits
of two-party system
– Concept of loyal opposition accepted
 Democracy spread to presidency
– Most presidential electors chosen by popular vote rather state legislature by
1828
– Participation rates rose from 27% in early 1820s to high of 78% in 1840
 Economic Issues
 Interest in government economic policy
intensified after 1819
 Political activity and debate around economic
issues foreshadowed rise of parties based
around economic programs
 Republican ideology from Revolution made
people suspicious of groups they did not
identify with or benefit from
– Jacksonians fear of “the money power”
 Debate over role of federal government in the
economy
 Labor Radicalism and
Equal Rights
 Working men’s parties and trade unions emerged
in the 1820s and 1830s to protect equal rights that
appeared to be eroding because of low wages
 They advocated public education reform, a ten-
hour workday, an end to debtors’ prisons, and hard
currency
 They made some gains but were set back by the
Depression of 1837
 The women’s rights movement and abolitionists
made little progress
 Jackson and the Politics
of Democracy
 Jackson became a symbol of
democracy’s triumph
 Actions of Jackson and his party
re-fashioned national politics in a
democratic mold
 Era known as Jacksonian Democracy
 The Election of 1824 and
J. Q. Adams’s Administration
 The election of 1824 a five-way race
 Jackson appealed to slaveholders and
rural people opposed to Clay’s economic
nationalism
 Jackson got plurality of popular and
electoral vote, but not a majority
 Adams won in House of Representatives
with Henry Clay’s support
 The Election of 1824 and
J. Q. Adams’s Administration
 Clay’s appointment as Secretary of
State led to charges of a “corrupt
bargain” between Clay and Adams
 Adams rejected anti-economic
nationalism sentiment in his policies
 Mid-term election of 1826 gave Jackson
forces control of Congress
 Tariff became key issue and logrolling
produced “Tariff of Abominations” in
1828
The Election of 1824
 Jackson Comes to Power
 “Corrupt Bargain” set motivation for 1828
election
 Influential state leaders supported Jackson
– Calhoun in South Carolina, Van Buren in New York
– Their efforts led to formation of Democratic party,
first modern American party
 New electioneering techniques of mass
democracy born
– Parades, picnics, public rallies, etc.
 Jackson Comes to Power
 Campaign dominated by personal attacks and
mudslinging
 Jacksonians won by portraying Jackson as
authentic man of the people
 Jackson unclear about his stands on policy
issues of the day other than Indian removal
 Jackson’s democratic stamp on his
administration
– Defended “spoils system” as democratic
– Replaced most of cabinet because of Peggy Eaton
affair
 Indian Removal
 Indian removal policy inherited from prior
administrations
 Jackson agreed with state complaints that
federal government had not removed Indians
quickly enough
 Some southern states asserted authority over
Indians in their borders
 Jackson got federal government approval for
state removal initiatives with Indian Removal
Act of 1830
 1838—U.S. Army forced Cherokee west
along the Trail of Tears
Indian Removal
 The Nullification Crisis
 South opposed tariff because it increased
prices for manufactured goods and
endangered their access to foreign markets
 In wake of 1828 Tariff, John C. Calhoun
anonymously spelled out Doctrine of
Nullification—right of an individual state to set
aside state law
 Personal relations between Jackson and
Calhoun soured
 1830—Jefferson Day Dinner
– Jackson “to the union—it must be preserved”
– Calhoun “to the union—next to our liberty, the most
dear”
 The Nullification Crisis
 1832—tariff passed, South Carolina nullified
 Jackson threatened to send army
 Compromise
– Force Bill authorized Jackson to use military to
enforce federal law
– Clay’s Compromise Tariff of 1833 lowered rates
 Nullification foreshadowed state sovereignty
positions of the South in slavery debates
 The Bank War and the
Second Party System
 “The Bank War” a symbolic defense of
Jacksonian concept of democracy
 Led to two important results
– Formation of opposition party to Jackson—
the Whigs
– Economic disruption
 Mr. Biddle’s Bank
 Bank of the United States unpopular,
blamed in South and West for 1819
Depression
 1823 Biddle took over and restored
confidence
 Jeffersonians opposed bank on
principle as unconstitutional and
preserve of corrupt special privilege
 Bank possessed great power and
privilege with no public accountability
 The Bank Veto and the
Election of 1832
 Jackson vaguely threatened bank in first
term
 On advice of Clay, Biddle sought new
charter four years early in 1832
 Congress passed, but Jackson vetoed
– Claimed the bank was unconstitutional
– Defended veto as a blow for equality
 Jacksonian victory in 1832 spelled bank’s
doom
The Election of 1832
 Killing the Bank
 Jackson destroyed bank by removing federal
deposits
 Funds transferred to state (“pet”) banks
 Biddle used his powers to cause recession,
attempted to blame Jackson
 Clay got censure of Jackson through Senate for
abusing his power (Jackson’s withdrawal of
deposits from bank)
 Destruction of bank provoked fears of
dictatorship, cost Jackson support in Congress
 The Emergence of the Whigs
 Whig party a coalition of forces, first united in censure
of Jackson
– Clay and National Republicans
– Webster and New England ex-Federalists
– States-rights southerners
– Anti-Masonic party
 Whigs defended activist government in economics,
enforcement of “decency”
 Democrats opposed government regulation of morality
 Democrats weakened by
– Defection of Loco-Focos faction upset over pet banks
– Specie Circular led to the Panic of 1837
 The Rise and Fall of Van Buren

 Martin Van Buren Jackson’s

handpicked successor
 Whig strategy in 1836 was to run four
candidates and force election to House
of Representatives; it failed
 Term began with Panic of 1837
 Panic caused more by complex
changes in global economy than
Jackson’s fiscal policy
 The Rise and Fall of Van Buren

 Laissez-faire philosophy prevented Van

Buren from helping to solve the
problems of economic distress
 Van Buren attempted to save
government funds with independent
sub-treasuries
 Whigs blocked sub-treasuries until 1840
The Election of 1836
 The Rise and Fall of Van Buren

 Whigs fully organized by 1840

 Whig candidate William Henry Harrison
– Image built of a common man who had
been born in a log cabin
– Running mate John Tyler chosen to attract
votes from states-rights Democrats
 Harrison and Tyler beat Van Buren
because their revival of the American
system seemed like a good response
 Heyday of the Second
Party System
 Election of 1840 marked rise of permanent
two-party system in the U.S.
 Whigs and Democrats evenly divided the
electorate for next two decades
 Parties offered voters a clear choice
– Whigs supported a “positive liberal state”:
government should support and protect
industries that help economic growth
– Democrats supported “negative liberal state”:
government should not interfere in economy
 Heyday of the Second
Party System
 Whigs
– Industrialists, merchants, successful
farmers, more likely Protestant
 Democrats
– Small farmers, manufacturing, more likely
Catholic
 Tocqueville’s Wisdom

 Alexis de Tocqueville praised most

aspects of American democracy
 Warned of future disaster if white males
refused to extend liberty to women,
African Americans, and Indians