Sectionalism, Nullification, and Indian Removal Key Concept 4.3
Sectionalism, 1820-1860 North: New England and the Middle Atlantic states and the Old Northwest - Ohio to Minnesota. - Northern states were bound by transportation routes - Rapid economic growth - commercial farming/industrial innovation - Expanding manufacturing - Agriculture Most populous section: high birth rate and increased immigration. Immigrants: 1820, 8,000 1854: 428,000 1830-1850: 4 million immigrants: Irish (2 million), German (1 million)
Sectionalism, 1820-1860 South: 1861: 15 states - Agriculture: foundation of economy - 15% of nation s manufactured good - Tobacco, rice, sugar cane - cash crops - #1: Production and sale of cotton Eli Whitney and mechanized textile mills in England - England depended on the South s cotton fiber - South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, & Texas. - Depleted soil quickly - 1850: ⅔ of all exports cotton Cotton is King
Slavery, that Peculiar Institution Wealth was measured by: land and slaves Population: 1800: 1 million 1860: 4 million - Slave codes to restrict movement, education, and lives Economics: Work was whatever was demanded Land value: $2,000/person Life: Depended on where they lived, but you re still considered property and, well, a slave. Revolts/Uprisings: Denmark Vesey 1822 and Nat Turner in 1831
Sectionalism, 1820-1860 West: The Frontier - mid-1800s: beyond Mississippi (CA, OR) 1850: Native Americans - most were living west of Mississippi (Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears) Mountain men, fur trappers Risks: Diseases and malnutrition and Native American resistance 1860: 619,000 people
President Jackson Summary - Different type of president from any predecessor - Strong leader - Became a symbol of the working and middle class (Common Man) - First president without a college education self-made man Presidential Power - Spoils System - Opposed increasing federal spending - Interpreted the powers of Congress narrowly - vetoed 12 bills - Bank Veto - suspicion bank abused powers and served interests of only the wealthy. Jackson = bank was unconstitutional - Indian Removal (we will come back to this one)
President Jackson Summary Pet Banks: Jackson attacked the Bank of the United States by withdrawing all federal funds and into state banks. Critics = pet banks. Democrats Supported: local rule, limited gov t, free trade, opp for white males Concerns: monopolies, nat l bank, high tariffs, high and prices Supporters: the South and West, urban workers, middle/low class Whigs Supported: American System: national bank, fed funds to improve Concerns: crime associated with immigrants Supporters: New England/Mid-Atlantic, Protestants, urban
Nullification Crisis, 1828 Jackson favored states rights, but not disunion Tariff of 1828 or Tariff of Abominations (1828) - Set very high protective tariffs Reaction? - Southern states opposed because exported cotton & imported manufactured goods - John Calhoun anonymously wrote South Carolina Exposition & Protest (1829) asserting states right to nullify federal laws & secede from union
Jackson s Reaction to Nullification Proclamation to the People of SC: - Nullification and disunion were treason - Told secretary of war to prepare for military action - Opened door to compromise: Congress lower tariff (next slide) Jackson defended federal government over states rights. - Militant southerners supported Jackson - Southerners were alarmed about anti-slavery movement in north - Jackson ordered, through executive power, to stop anti-slavery literature from being sent through US mail. - South trusted AJ that democracy wouldn t extend to blacks
Tariff of 1832 and the Ordinance of Nullification - Reduced the existing tariffs - Hoped to remedy the Tariff of 1828 Reaction? - South still deemed unsatisfactory - South Carolina Convention drafts Ordinance of Nullification of 1832. South Carolina will NOT collect the tariff it the state and will consider leaving the Union if attempt is made to collect the tariff is by force. - Despite sympathetic voices from other Southern states, South Carolina found itself standing alone.
Indian Removal Act (1830) Democracy did not extend to Native Americans Sympathized with land-hungry citizens, impatient with wanting land - Jackson thought the most humane solution was to compel the Native Americans to leave their traditional homelands and head west of the Mississippi. 3 options: leave, assimilate, or be forced. - Signed Indian Removal Act 1830 - Forced resettlement of many - Bureau of Indian Affairs created in 1836 to assist
[Andrew Jackson as The Great Father], lithograph. ca. 1835. By: Thomas Nast Opponents of removal mocked Jackson's professed compassion for Native Americans by depicting him as a paternal figure comforting Indian "children."
Marshall Court - Politicians at the time supported the policy - Georgia passed a law requiring Cherokee s to migrate Cherokee tribe challenged Georgia using the court system - Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) - Ruled Cherokees could not sue in a federal court - Worcester v. Georgia (1832) - Ruled that the laws of Georgia had no force within Cherokee territory Jackson sided with the states. The Court was powerless to enforce its decision without the support of the president.
Trail of Tears Most Cherokees repudiated the settlement of 1835 - which left them land in the new Indian territory. - 1838: After Jackson left office, under Van Buren, the U.S. Army forced 15,000 Cherokees to leave Georgia. - Hardships caused the deaths of over 4,000 Cherokees
The Trail of Tears, was painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942. It commemorate s the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal.
Next Lecture: Society, Culture, and Reform - Second Great Awakening - Mormons - Art and Literature - Writers, poets, painters - Reforming Society - Temperance - Public education - Roles of women and Seneca Falls convention - Anti-slavery movement