Chapter 11 – A New National Identity (1812 – 1840)

Section One - The Rise of Nationalism

The Era of Good Feelings

• After the War of 1812, U.S. pride grows
• Called Era of Good Feelings
• James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) wins Presidency in 1816
• Reelected in 1820 (unopposed)
• US sets US-Canada border at 49th parallel by treaty with Britain
• No more impressment now that Britain is not fighting France

The Issue of Florida

• US wants to move into Spanish controlled Florida
• Seminole Indians attack US towns from Florida
• Seminole also accept runaway slaves, making plantation owners angry
• US talks to Spanish diplomat Luis do Onis about issues
• US sends Andrew Jackson to secure the border
• April 1818 – Jackson attacks Seminole illegally, capturing important Spanish military outposts and overthrows the governor of Florida without orders
• British and Spanish angry, but US citizens loved it
• Adams-Onis Treaty – 1819 – Spain gives US Florida in return for US giving up claims to Texas
• Spain couldn’t control Florida against the US anyway

Monroe Doctrine

• Spain is weakening as a country
• Spain’s colonies in Central and South America beginning to declare independence from Spain by the early 1820’s
• US supports these revolutions because we’d have new trading partners
• US worried other European countries will try to take over new, weak countries in South and Central America
• Monroe Doctrine – US says any European influence in new Central or South American countries is a hostile act
• British secretly provide the military help to support this in exchange for a chance to trade in the new countries.
• US trying to monopolize trade in the western hemisphere
• It works – generally, Europe stays away while US sets up a presence in Latin and South America

Section Two – Expansion and Improvements

The Missouri Compromise

• Missouri wants to enter the Union in 1819
• Pro-slavery people want them as a slave state (a state where slavery would be legal)
• Anti-slavery people want them to be a non-slave state (no slavery permitted)
• The country had 11 slave states and 11 free states, meaning Missouri would upset the balance in the Senate, part of the law-making legislative branch
• The House was controlled by Northern (non-slave) states because they had larger populations than the South
• If non-slave people controlled both houses of Congress, they could pass a bill making slavery illegal in the US
• Missouri Compromise (1820) – Created by Henry Clay of Kentucky

• Missouri enters Union as a slave state
  
• Maine enters as a free state
  
• Slavery will be prohibited in new states above 36°30’N latitude – Missouri’s southern border
  

Internal Improvements

• Henry Clay’s plan, called the American System, calls for a tariff
• Money raised from the Tariff would provide the government funds to build roads and canals and make other internal improvements
• Tariff would protect US business but hurt consumers by driving up costs of foreign goods

New Roads and Canals

• In the early 1800’s, most roads made of dirt
• Very rutted and muddy in rain, dusty in dry weather
• Cumberland Road (1818) – first road built by US government connects Wheeling, WV to Cumberland, MD. Later expanded to Illinois in the 1850’s
• Canals – man made rivers to ship goods and travel on easily
• Erie Canal – ran from Buffalo to Albany

• Built from 1817 to 1825 by Governor DeWitt Clinton
  
• Connects Atlantic with the Great Lakes with the Hudson River
  
• Very Successful – five largest cities in NY are on it
  
• Originally 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep
  

The Election of 1824

• Shows the country’s regional differences
• John Quincy Adams vs Andrew Jackson (both Republicans)
• Jackson wins popular vote, but did not get enough electoral college votes to win
• According to the Constitution, House of Representatives must choose a winner
• Speaker of the House Henry Clay convinces the House to support Adams
• Day after election, Clay chosen to be Secretary of State
• Election called “Corrupt Bargain”
• Adams cannot do anything as President as a result – Congress refuses to listen to him

Section Three – The Age of Jackson

Jacksonian Democracy

• More and more Americans gain the right to vote as rules requiring land ownership are being eliminated
• Voters are now white, over the age of 21, and male
• Democratic Party - Supporters of Andrew Jackson - farmers, frontier settlers, and southern slave owners who believed Jackson would fight for the common man
• Jackson chooses South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun as a running mate for Vice President, winning support in the South
• National Republican Party – Supporters of Adams – wealthy northerners

Jackson’s Victory

• Jackson (hot tempered, crude, westerner, nicknamed Old Hickory as a result of his toughness) vs. Adams (Harvard man, icy personality)
• Jackson wins with a record number of votes
• Seen as expansion of democracy – that Jackson is a president of ALL of the people – not just the wealthy and well educated
• Inauguration party trashes the White House – this is a sign of things to come
• Spoils System – Jackson rewards supporters with government jobs that they are totally unqualified for
• Kitchen Cabinet – Jackson largely ignored his regular cabinet, instead relying upon a tight group of friends to advise him. So called because they often met in the White House kitchen

Conflict over Tariffs

• Business wants high tariffs to protect themselves from foreign competition
• South had little industry, did not want tariffs and high prices they bring
• Congress passes very high tariff in 1828
• Tariff of Abominations – south hates the high tariff and says US govt is abusing its power

The Nullification Crisis

• Vice President John C. Calhoun leads opposition to tariff
• States’ Rights – Some states claim to have right to nullify (cancel) federal laws they feel are unconstitutional
• Calhoun said states have right to rebel if their rights were violated
• North disagrees
• South Carolina passed a resolution saying the tariffs were not permitted in South Carolina, and John C. Calhoun supports his home state by resigning
• Jackson strongly against nullification
• Threatens to send troops to South Carolina
• Compromise was reached - Congress lowered the tariff, and South Carolina agreed to enforce the law

The Second Bank of the United States

• Jackson is against the Federal Bank
• McCulloch vs. Maryland – US Supreme Court case

• Maryland taxed the Federal Bank
  
• Banker James McCulloch refused to pay the tax
  
• Maryland sues McCulloch
  
• Chief Justice Marshall rules two things
  

ß Bank is constitutional under the elastic clause (loose construction)
ß Federal laws are superior to state laws (challenges ideas of states’ rights)

• Bank’s charter to run out in 1836
• Nicholas Biddle, head of Bank, wants to renew the Bank in 1832
• Jackson wants to kill the National Bank and vetoes the charter
• Congress cannot get the 2/3’s to override the veto
• Jackson pays off much national debt

Van Buren’s Presidency (1836 – 1840)

• Whig Party – Created by those who felt Jackson abused his power. Wanted a weak president and strong Congress. Nominate four candidates, which splits the vote
• Martin Van Buren gets Democratic support, and support from popular Jackson
• People never like Van Buren as they did Jackson
• Panic of 1837 – severe economic depression
• William Henry Harrison (Whig) vs. Van Buren (Democat) in 1840
• Harrison runs with John Tyler – mottos is “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too”
• Harrison claims his is man of people, claiming he grew up in a log cabin (not true)
• Harrison becomes first Whig President – 234 electoral votes to 60 for Van Buren

Section Four – Indian Removal

The Black Hawk War

• US govt declares all Indians must leave Illinois due to fighting there
• Black Hawk and followers refuse to leave, saying land cannot be sold
• When Sauk Indians returned from winter hunt in 1830, they found whites had taken over village
• US troops fire on Indians, who were carrying a white flag and wanting to negotiate
• Indians raid US settlements but run out of food
• Black Hawk surrenders
• US removes Indians from Northwest Territories by 1850.

The Indian Removal Act

• Indians in Southeast on good farm land
• Jackson says Indians need to leave
• Jackson pushes Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act (1830), authorizing removal of any Indians living east of the Mississippi
• Congress creates Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma
• Belief that this would protect Indians from further pressure of expansion
• Bureau of Indian Affairs – created by federal govt. to watch over federal policy toward Indians
• Choctaw – first to be moved from Mississippi to Oklahoma. 25% die of cold, starvation, and disease when US govt doesn’t provide enough food or supplies
• 1836 – 14,500 Creek Indians who refused to move were taken in chains from their homeland in Alabama to Indian Territory
• Chickasaw also moved from Mississippi in winter of 1837-38

The Cherokee Nation

• Cherokee invited missionaries to teach them to read and write English
• Had own written language with 86 characters – very intelligent tribe
• Had own government based on the US Constitution, and own newspaper printed in English and Cherokee

The Trail of Tears

• Adoption of white culture did not protect Cherokee
• Gold discovered on Cherokee lands in Georgia
• Georgia sends militia to force them to move
• Cherokee sues that state, saying they were an independent nation, and therefore Georgia law doesn’t apply to them
• Worcester v. Georgia – US Supreme Court agrees – Court ruled that the federal govt., not states had authority over the Cherokee
• Georgia ignores the ruling, but Jackson does nothing to enforce it (this is his job as head of the executive branch)
• Jackson Quote – “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”
• Georgia destroys the Cherokee printing press to stop criticism – violation of the first amendment
• Spring of 1838 – US troops remove the Cherokee to Indian Territory.
• 800 mile march lasts from 1838 to 1839
• 1/4 of 18,000 Cherokee die
• Georgia takes control of Cherokee businesses, farms, and property

The Second Seminole War

• Unlike the Cherokee, the Seminole fought removal from the Florida everglades
• Many Seminole were, or were descendants of, runaway slaves
• Osceola, chief of Seminole, says to stay and fight
• Seminole win many early battles, but Osceola was caught and died in prison in 1837
• By 1842, US captured and removed some 4000 Seminole, but lost 1500 US troops
• US decides to give up the fight
• Seminole were officially at war with the US until the beginning of WWII in 1940

Section Five – American Culture

American Tales

• Some stories of founding fathers exaggerated to make the people seem more interesting and heroic
• Washington Irving – used satire to warn Americans to learn from past and be cautious about the Future. Wrote “Rip Van Winkle” and “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

James Fenimore Cooper

• Wrote stories of the American West despite never having been there
• Popularized historical fiction – fictional characters are involved in a real historical event
• Wrote “The Last of the Mohicans”

Catherine Maria Sedgwick

• Wrote novels that told the truth (both good and bad) about US history
• Challenge commonly held ideas about women, such as the idea all women had to marry

New Style of Art

• Landscapes show the beauty, diversity, and uniqueness of the US lands