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CHAPTER 10 Democracy in America, 1815–1840
This chapter concentrates on the last of the three historical processes unleashed by the Revolution that accelerated
after the War of 1812—the rise of a vigorous political democracy. Democracy increased as the electorate enlarged
with the abolition of property requirements for suffrage in most states. However, women and free blacks were
largely excluded from political democracy. Much of the political debate during the period involved economic issues
vigorous national power, guided by Martin Van Buren’s idea that competing political parties were healthy for the
nation, coalesced into the Democratic Party that succeeded in electing Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1828.
The new party system took shape during Jackson’s two terms when nullification, Indian removal, and a “war” over
national banking policy helped to divide the nation into Democrats (Jackson’s supporters) and Whigs (his
opponents). One key Jackson opponent was John C. Calhoun, who wanted to protect the power of the South as a
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Introduction: Andrew Jackson
A. Jackson embodies the major developments of the era:
1. Market revolution
2. Westward movement
3. Expansion of slavery
4. Growth of democracy
B. Background
1. As a boy, he served as a courier in the American Revolution.
C. America’s claim to being oldest democracy
II. The Triumph of Democracy
A. Property and Democracy
1. With regard to freedom, political democracy was intimately connected with the market revolution and
territorial expansion.
2. By 1860, all but one state had eliminated property requirements for voting.
B. The Dorr War
1. Rhode Island had property qualifications for voting in 1841.
2. Because propertyless wage earners (e.g., factory workers) could not vote, the state’s labor movement
pushed for reform at the People’s Convention (October 1841).
a. This extralegal convention adopted a new state constitution that enfranchised all white men.
C. Tocqueville on Democracy
1. By 1840, more than 90 percent of adult white men were eligible to vote.
2. Democratic political institutions came to define the nation’s sense of its own identity.
3. Tocqueville identified democracy as an essential attribute of American freedom.
D. The Information Revolution
1. Market revolution and political democracy produced an expansion in the public sphere and an explosion
in printing.
a. The penny press emphasized sensationalism, crime stories, and exposés.
b. Newspapers had far reach due to low postal rates.
c. Organized political parties led to more newspapers.
d. A reduction in printing costs made possible “alternative” papers started by blacks, labor workers, and
abolitionists.
E. The Limits of Democracy
1. As with the market revolution, women and blacks were barred from full democracy.
a. They were denied based on their alleged natural incapacity.
2. Freedom in the public realm in no way implied freedom in private life.
F. A Racial Democracy
1. Despite increased democracy in America, blacks were seen as a group apart with regard to equality.
2. Blacks were often portrayed as stereotypes.
G. Race and Class
1. By 1860, blacks could vote in the same way as whites in only five New England states.
2. No state accorded free blacks full equality before the law.
3. In effect, race had replaced class as the boundary that separated those American men who were entitled
to enjoy political freedom from those who were not.
III. Nationalism and Its Discontents
A. The American System
1. Fighting to a draw in the War of 1812 led to a burst of national pride.
2. A new manufacturing sector emerged from the War of 1812, and many believed that it was a necessary
complement to the agricultural sector for national growth.
3. In 1815, President James Madison put forward a blueprint for government-promoted economic
development that came to be known as the American System:
4. President Madison came to believe that a constitutional amendment was necessary for the government
to build roads and canals and vetoed the “internal improvements.”
B. Banks and Money
1. The Second Bank of the United States was a profit-making corporation that served the government.
2. Local banks promoted economic growth.
3. Local banks printed money.
a. The value of paper currency fluctuated wildly.
b. The Bank of the United States was supposed to prevent the overissuance of money.
c. The BUS could demand payment in gold and silver from a local bank.
C. The Panic of 1819
1. The Bank of the United States participated in a speculative fever that swept the country after the War of
1812 ended.
2. Early in 1819, as European demand for American farm products returned to normal levels, the economic
bubble burst.
a. Demand for land fell, and with it prices.
b. BUS and state banks quickly called in loans.
D. The Politics of the Panic
a. It was constitutional due to the “general welfare clause”
b. Maryland could not tax the bank.
E. The Missouri Controversy
1. James Monroe’s two terms as president were characterized by the absence of two-party competition
(“The Era of Good Feelings”).
2. The absence of political party disputes was replaced by sectional disputes.
3. Missouri petitioned for statehood in 1819.
a. Debate arose over slavery.
4. The Missouri Compromise was adopted by Congress in 1820.
5. Henry Clay engineered a second Missouri Compromise to deal with Missouri’s barring of free blacks
(1821), which the state largely ignored.
F. The Slavery Question
1. Northern Republicans did not want slavery to expand for political reasons.
a. New York believed that the South, especially Virginia, had too much power.
2. The Missouri debate highlighted that the westward expansion of slavery was a passionate topic that
eventually proved to be hazardous to national unity.
IV. Nation, Section, and Party
A. The United States and the Latin American Wars of Independence
1. Between 1810 and 1822, Spain’s Latin American colonies rose in rebellion and established a series of
independent nations.
2. In 1822, the Monroe administration became the first government to extend diplomatic recognition to
the new Latin American republics.
3. In some ways, Latin American constitutions were more democratic than the U.S. Constitution.
a. They allowed Indians and free blacks to vote.
4. These wars of independence lasted longer and were more destructive.
a. It was difficult to achieve economic development.
B. The Monroe Doctrine
1. Fearing that Spain would try to regain its colonies, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams drafted the
Monroe Doctrine.
C. The Election of 1824
1. Andrew Jackson was the only candidate in the 1824 election to have national appeal.
2. None of the four candidates received a majority of the electoral votes.
a. The election fell to the House of Representatives.
b. Henry Clay, out of the running, supported John Quincy Adams.
3. Clay’s “corrupt bargain” gave Adams the White House.
D. The Nationalism of John Quincy Adams
1. John Quincy Adams enjoyed one of the most distinguished pre-presidential careers of any American
president.
2. Adams had a clear vision of national greatness.
a. He supported the American System.
b. He wished to enhance American influence in the Western Hemisphere.
E. “Liberty Is Power”
1. Adams held a view of federal power far more expansive than that of most of his contemporaries.
a. He stated that “liberty is power”
2. His plans alarmed many, and his vision would not be fulfilled until the twentieth century.
F. Martin Van Buren and the Democratic Party
1. Adams’s political rivals emphasized:
2. Martin Van Buren viewed political party competition as a necessary and positive influence to achieve
national unity.
3. He hoped to reconstruct the Jeffersonian political alliance.
G. The Election of 1828
V. The Age of Jackson
A. The Party System
1. Jackson was a man of many contradictions.
2. Politics had become a spectacle.
3. Party machines emerged.
a. Spoils system
4. National conventions chose candidates.
5. Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet was an informal group of advisers.
a. Most were newspaper editors.
B. Democrats and Whigs
1. Democrats and Whigs differed on issues that emerged from the market revolution and tension between
national and sectional loyalties.
2. Democrats were alarmed by the widening gap between social classes.
a. Democrats favored no government intervention in the economy.
3. Whigs supported government promotion of economic development through the American System.
C. Public and Private Freedom
1. The party battles of the Jacksonian era reflected the clash between public and private definitions of
American freedom and their relationship to governmental power.
2. Democrats supported a weak federal government, championing individual and states’ rights.
D. Politics and Morality
1. Democrats opposed attempts to impose a unified moral vision on society.
2. Whigs believed that a strong federal government was necessary to promote liberty.
3. Whigs argued that government should promote morality to foster the welfare of the people.
E. South Carolina and Nullification
1. Jackson’s first term was dominated by a battle to uphold the supremacy of federal over state law.
a. Tariff of 1828
2. South Carolina led the charge for a weakened federal government in part from fear that a strong federal
government might act against slavery.
F. Calhoun’s Political Theory
1. John C. Calhoun emerged as the leading theorist of nullification.
a. Exposition and Protest
i. Influenced by the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions
ii. Because states created the Constitution, each one could prevent the enforcement within its
borders of federal laws that exceeded powers specifically spelled out in the Constitution.
2. Daniel Webster argued that the people, not the states, created the Constitution.
a. Nullification was illegal, unconstitutional, and treasonous.
G. The Nullification Crisis
1. Calhoun denied that nullification led to disunion.
a. Concurrent majority
H. Indian Removal
1. The expansion of cotton and slavery led to forced relocation of Indians.
a. Indian Removal Act of 1830
b. Five Civilized Tribes
c. Cherokees took the lead with the development of written language, schools, and written laws.
I. The Supreme Court and the Indians
1. The Cherokees went to court to protect their rights.
a. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
i. Indians were wards of the federal government.
b. Worcester v. Georgia
i. Georgia’s actions violated Cherokee treaties with the federal government.
2. John Ross led the Cherokee resistance.
a. Trail of Tears
4. William Apess appealed for harmony between white Americans and Indians.
VI. The Bank War and After
A. Biddle’s Bank
1. The Bank of the United States symbolized the hopes and fears inspired by the market revolution.
a. Central political struggle of Age of Jackson
2. Jackson distrusted bankers as “nonproducers.”
3. The bank, under its president, Nicholas Biddle, wielded great power.
4. Using language resonating with popular values, Jackson vetoed a bill to renew the bank’s charter.
5. Jackson enhanced the role of the presidency as he claimed to be representing the people.
B. Pet Banks and the Economy
C. The Panic of 1837
1. By 1836, the American government required gold or silver for payments for land purchases and the
Bank of England required the same for American creditors.
2. With cotton exports declining, the United States suffered a panic in 1837 and a depression until 1843.
3. States amended their constitutions, prohibiting legislatures from borrowing money, issuing corporate
charters, and buying stock in private enterprises.
a. For a time, Jacksonians had separated both federal and state governments from being involved in the
economy.
D. Van Buren in Office
1. Martin Van Buren approved the Independent Treasury to deal with the crisis.
2. The Independent Treasury split the Democratic Party.
a. Calhoun went back to the Democrats.
E. The Election of 1840
SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Discuss how, during the Age of Jackson, politics became a spectacle.
• Describe how Andrew Jackson embodied the prevailing mood of America. What did Americans see in his life
and character that made him so popular?
• Discuss the ways liberty and freedom were used to justify the removal of the Indians in the 1830s. How did
opponents of Indian removal use liberty and freedom?
• How did the nullification crisis illustrate the divide between North and South? Compare the significance of the
nullification crisis with the Missouri Compromise.
• What were the key arguments made in the debate about the removal of Indians from the southeastern states to
what is now Oklahoma?
• How did Native Americans respond to removal policies?
• Describe the impact of removal upon Native American communities in the 1830s.
SUPPLEMENTAL WEB AND VISUAL RESOURCES
Andrew Jackson
The Hermitage
http://thehermitage.com
This site showcases Jackson’s mansion and plantation in Tennessee.
Eastern Indian Wars
http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/exhibition/flash.html
From the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History: Select a war (e.g., Eastern Indian Wars, 1813–
1838) and enter an exhibit that includes a movie, learning resources, statistics, printable exhibition, maps, and time lines.
The Panic of 1819
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Panic_of_1819
From Ohio History Central, this website gives an overview of the Panic but also offers useful links to related topics,
including Andrew Jackson, the banking crisis, and early industrialization.
The Trail of Tears
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/two/trailtears.htm
From the PBS series The West by Ken Burns, volume 2, “Trail of Tears,” concentrates on the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
SUPPLEMENTAL PRINT RESOURCES
Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820–1875. Norman, OK: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2005.
Brands, H. W. The Money Men: Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years’ War over the American Dollar. New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Ellis, Richard E. The Union at Risk: Jacksonian Democracy, States’ Rights and the Nullification Crisis. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1987.
Feller, Daniel. “Politics and Society: Toward a Jacksonian Synthesis.” Journal of the Early Republic 10, no. 2 (1990): 135–161.
———. The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815–1840. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
Fitz, Caitlin. Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
2016.
Unger, Harlow Giles. The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press,
2009.
Watson, Harry. Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay: Democracy and Development in Antebellum America. New York: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 1998.
Weeks, William Earl. John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1992.
INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTOR ACTIVITIES
1. Andrew Jackson: States’ Rights Man or Nationalist?
For this activity, use Chapter 10 in Give Me Liberty!, the PBS website “Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil & The Presidency,” and
Jackson’s Bank Veto Message. The PBS website is the companion site for the documentary of the same name, and the “Themes”
and “Special Features” links feature essays and interactive material. An excerpt of the Bank Veto Message is in the third edition
of the Voices of Freedom documents reader. The full version may be found here.
Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil & The Presidency
http://www.pbs.org/program/andrew-jackson/
Bank Veto Message
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/ajveto01.asp
A. Group Activity:
Break the students into three groups, with each taking a key issue. Group One will examine the Bank of the United States and
Jackson’s veto. Group Two will look at the protective tariff and nullification crisis. Group Three will examine the removal of
the Five Civilized Tribes.
B. Discussion Activities:
After listening to each group answer the first two questions, discuss the following questions as a class:
1. Ultimately, did Jackson favor more of a states’ rights viewpoint or one of supremacy of the national government?
2. Finally, what influence did Jackson have on this new Democratic Party and how did he shape the presidency?
2. The Struggle of Free Black People for Civil Rights
Form the class into a convention of free black people, men and women, who have met to discuss the decline of political
rights in the northern states during the 1830s. Ask each student to write down the problems and opportunities encompassing
free blacks during the era. As the students write out their ideas, place on the screen an image of free black people before the
Civil War. One website to consider using is from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and
Culture.
Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype.
https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/blackface-birth-american-stereotype.
Then reconvene the class and ask the following questions:
