Transcript Historical Discussions for the 19th century 1

Historical Discussions #6
The Supreme Court Rules on Marbury v. Madison
Work Begins at the Erie Canal
Henry Clay Engineers the Missouri Compromise
The Factory System Arrives in New England
James Monroe Announces a New Doctrine
Andrew Jackson is Elected President
Abolitionists Establish the “Underground Railroad”
Congress Passes the Indian Removal Act
Nat Turner Rebels
Ralph Waldo Emerson Delivers the “American Scholar”
Speech
Frederick Douglass Publishes his Biography
John O’Sullivan Writes About “Manifest Destiny”
Topics that Define the 19th Century
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Defining the American Character
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– By 1860, the original thirteen states had more
than doubled in number: thirty-three stars
graced the American flag and the United
States was the fourth most populous nation in
the western world, exceed only by three
European countries—Russia, France, and
Austria
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The Peculiar Institution of Slavery
– Abolitionists
– The Compromise of 1850
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The Industrial Revolution
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The Factory System
New Modes of Transportation
Machinery
The creation of a new working class
Urban growth continued explosively; in 1790
only two American cities (Philadelphia and
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New York) had populations of twenty
thousand or more but by 1860, there were 43 •
– Such over rapid urbanization unfortunately
brought undesirable by-products; It
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intensified the problems of smelly slums,
feeble street lighting, inadequate policing,
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impure water, foul sewage, ravenous rats, and
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improper garbage disposal
– BY 1861 there were over two million spindles •
in over 1200 cotton factories and 1500
woolen factories in the United States.
A Changing Landscape
– continuing high birthrate accounted for most of
the increase in population, but by the 1840s the
tides of immigration were adding hundreds of
thousands more
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Before this decade immigrants had been flowing in
at a rate of sixth thousand a year, but suddenly the
influx tripled in the 1840s and then quadrupled in
the 1850s
During these two feverish decades, over a million
and a half Irish, and nearly as many Germans,
swarmed down the gangplanks—why did they
come?
– The immigrants came partly because Europe
seemed to be running out of room; Europe grew
and “surplus” people, who were displaced and
footloose in their homelands before they felt the
tug of the American magnet (nearly 60 million
people abandoned Europe in the century after
1840, about 25 million went somewhere other
than in the United States)
The Problem of the Indians
The Westward Movement
– Manifest Destiny
The American Political System
The Two Party System
Women’s Rights
A Nation Divided
America – The Land of Equal Opportunity?
“The Luck of the Irish”
– The Potato Famine – Black 47 - a terrible rot attacked the potato crop,
on which the people had become dangerously dependent, and about
one-fourth of them were swept away by disease and hunger; all told,
about two million perished
– Tens of thousands flocked to America in the “Black Forties”—Ireland’s
great export has been population
– These uprooted newcomers—too poor to move west and buy the
necessary land, livestock, and equipment—swarmed into the larger
seaboard cities (Boston and NYC)
• Forced to live in squalor, they were rudely crammed into the already-vile slums and
were scorned by the older American stock, especially “proper” Protestant
Bostonians, who regarded the scruffy Catholic arrivals as a social menace
• As wage-depressing competitors for jobs (kitchen maids and railroads) the Irish
were hated by native workers—“No Irish Need Apply” was a sign commonly posted
• The Irish, for similar reasons, fiercely resented the blacks, with whom they shared
society’s basement; race riots between black and Irish dockworkers flared up
– “Molly Maguire's,” a shadowy Irish miners’ union in the PA coal districts in 1860s-70s
– The Irish tended to remain in low-skill occupations but gradually
improved their lot, usually by acquiring modest amounts of property
– education of children usually cut short
The Germans
– The influx of refugees from Germany between 1830 and 1860 was over a million and a
half Germans arrived
• The bulk of them were uprooted farmers, displaced by crop failures and other hardships; but a strong
sprinkling were liberal political refugees
• Saddened by the collapse of the democratic revolutions of 1848, they had decided to leave the
autocratic fatherland and flee to America—the brightest hope of democracy
– Unlike the Irish, many Germanic newcomers possessed a modest amount of material
goods; settled in the Middle West, notably Wisconsin, where they settled and
established model farms—like the Irish, they formed an influential body of voters, but
they were less potent politically because they were more scattered
– The hand of Germans in shaping American life was widely felt in still other ways
• The Conestoga wagon, the Kentucky rifle, and the Christmas tree were all German
• Germans had fled from the militarism and wars of Europe and consequently came to be a safeguard
of isolationist sentiment in the upper Mississippi valley
• Better educated on the whole than the stump-grubbing Americans, they warmly supported public
schools, including their Kindergarten (children’s garden)
• The Germans likewise did much to stimulate art and music; as outspoken champions of freedom,
they became relentless enemies of slavery before the Civil War
– Yet the Germans—often dubbed “damned Dutchmen”—were regarded with suspicion
by their old-stock American neighbors; seeking to preserve their language and culture,
they sometimes settled in compact “colonies” and kept aloof from the surrounding
community
– They were accustomed to the “Continental Sunday” and drank huge quantities of an
amber beverage called bier (beer)—their Old World drinking habits, like the Irish,
spurred advocates of temperance in the use of alcohol to redouble their reform efforts
Native Americans
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The invasion by this so-called immigrant “rabble” in the 1840s and 1850s inflamed the
prejudices of American “nativists”—they feared that these foreign hordes would outbreed,
outvote, and overwhelm the old “native” people of America…
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The “Know Nothing” Party:
– 1849, they formed the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, which soon developed into the formidable
American, or “Know-Nothing,” party—a name derived from its secretiveness
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Not only did the newcomers take jobs from “native” Americans, but the bulk of the
displaced Irish were Roman Catholics, as were a substantial minority of the Germans
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The Church of Rome was still widely regarded by many old-line Americans as a “foreign”
church; convents were commonly referred to as “popish brothels”
– Roman Catholics were now on the move; seeking to protect their children from Protestant indoctrination
in the public schools, they began in the 1840s to construct a separate Catholic educational system
(expensive but revealed the strength of its commitment)
– With the enormous influx of the Irish and Germans in the 1840s and 1850s, the Catholics became a
powerful religious group; in 1840 they ranked fifth behind the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and
Congregationalists but by 1850, they bounded into first
The Supreme Court Rules on Marbury v. Madison
Landmark Supreme Court Case
• Arguably the most important case in Supreme Court history
• The first U.S. Supreme Court case to apply the principle of "judicial review" -- the
power of federal courts to void acts of Congress in conflict with the Constitution.
• Written in 1803 by Chief Justice John Marshall, the decision played a key role in
making the Supreme Court a separate branch of government on par with Congress
and the executive.
Midnight Appointments of John Adams’s Presidency - the election of 1800, the
newly organized Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson defeated the
Federalist party of John Adams, creating an atmosphere of political panic for the
lame duck Federalists. In the final days of his presidency, Adams appointed a large
number of justices of peace for the District of Columbia whose commissions were
approved by the Senate, signed by the president, and affixed with the official seal
of the government. The commissions were not delivered, however, and when
President Jefferson assumed office March 5, 1801, he ordered James Madison, his
Secretary of State, not to deliver them. William Marbury, one of the appointees,
then petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus, or legal order,
compelling Madison to show cause why he should not receive his commission.
Marshall and the 3 Questions
• Chief Justice Marshall answered three questions:
– First, did Marbury have a right to the writ for which he petitioned?
• With regard to the first question, Marshall ruled that Marbury had been properly appointed in
accordance with procedures established by law, and that he therefore had a right to the writ
– Second, did the laws of the United States allow the courts to grant Marbury such a
writ?
• Secondly, because Marbury had a legal right to his commission, the law must afford him a remedy.
The Chief Justice went on to say that it was the particular responsibility of the courts to protect the
rights of individuals -- even against the president of the United States. At the time, Marshall's thinly
disguised lecture to President Jefferson about the rule of law was much more controversial than his
statement about judicial review (which doctrine was widely accepted).
– Third, if they did, could the Supreme Court issue such a writ?
• It was in answering the third question -- whether a writ of mandamus issuing from the Supreme
Court was the proper remedy -- that Marshall addressed the question of judicial review. The Chief
Justice ruled that the Court could not grant the writ because Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789,
which granted it the right to do so, was unconstitutional insofar as it extended to cases of original
jurisdiction. Original jurisdiction -- the power to bring cases directly to the Supreme Court -- was the
only jurisdictional matter dealt with by the Constitution itself. According to Article III, it applied only
to cases "affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls" and to cases "in which the state
shall be party." By extending the Court's original jurisdiction to include cases like Marbury's, Congress
had exceeded it authority. And when an act of Congress is in conflict with the Constitution, it is,
Marshall said, the obligation of the Court to uphold the Constitution because, by Article VI, it is the
"supreme law of the land."
The Result
• As a result of Marshall's decision Marbury was denied his commission -which presumably pleased President Jefferson.
• Jefferson was not pleased with the lecture given him by the Chief Justice,
however, nor with Marshall's affirmation of the Court's power to review
acts of Congress.
• For practical strategic reasons, Marshall did not say that the Court was the
only interpreter of the Constitution (though he hoped it would be) and he
did not say how the Court would enforce its decisions if Congress or the
Executive opposed them.
• But, by his timely assertion of judicial review, the Court began its ascent as
an equal branch of government -- an equal in power to the Congress and
the president.
• Throughout its long history, when the Court needed to affirm its legitimacy,
it has cited Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison.
• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/democracy/landmark_marbury.ht
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The Erie Canal
The Industrial Revolution
Transportation
A major goal was to link Lake Erie and the other Great lakes to the Atlantic Ocean through a canal
Congress easily approved a bill to provide funding for what was then known as the Great Western Canal but
President James Monroe vetoed it – so, the New York State legislature took the matter into its own hands and
approved state funding for the canal in 1816, with tolls to pay back the state treasury for upon completion.
New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton was a major proponent of a canal and supported efforts for its
construction.
In 1817 he fortuitously become governor of the state and was able to thus oversee aspects of the canal
construction, which later became known as "Clinton's Ditch" by some.
On July 4, 1817, construction of the Erie Canal began in Rome, New York.
Many canal contractors were simply wealthy farmers along the canal route, contracted to construct their own
tiny portion of the canal.
Thousands of British, German, and Irish immigrants provided the muscle for the canal, which had to be dug
with shovels and horse power - without the use of today's heavy earth moving equipment.
The 80 cents to one dollar a day that laborers were paid was often three times the amount laborers could earn
in their home countries.
On October 25, 1825, the entire length of the Erie Canal was complete.
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The canal consisted of 85 locks to manage a 500 foot (150 meter) rise in elevation from the Hudson River to Buffalo.
The canal was 363 miles (584 kilometers) long, 40 feet (12m) wide, and 4 feet deep (1.2m). Overhead aqueducts were
used to allow streams to cross the canal.
The Erie Canal cost $7 million dollars to build but reduced shipping costs significantly.
Before the canal, the cost to ship one ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City cost $100.
After the canal, the same ton could be shipped for a mere $10.
The ease of trade prompted migration and the development of farms throughout the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest.
Farm fresh produce could be shipped to the growing metropolitan areas of the east and consumer goods could be
shipped west.
Before 1825, more than 85% of the population of New York State lived in rural villages of less than 3,000 people.
With the opening of the Erie Canal, the urban to rural ratio began to change dramatically.
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Henry Clay Engineers the Missouri Compromise
Slavery in the West
The Issue
The Compromise
The incorporation of new western territories
into the United States made slavery an
explicit concern of national politics balancing the interests of slave and free
states had played a role from the very start
of designing the federal government at the
Constitutional Convention in 1787.
In 1819, the nation contained eleven free
and eleven slave states creating a balance in
the U.S. senate.
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Henry Clay, a leading congressman, played a crucial role in
brokering a two-part solution known as the Missouri
Compromise.
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First, Missouri would be admitted to the union as a slave
state, but would be balanced by the admission of Maine, a
free state, that had long wanted to be separated from
Massachusetts.
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Second, slavery was to be excluded from all new states in the
Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of
Missouri.
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Nevertheless, it lasted for over thirty years until the KansasNebraska Act of 1854 determined that new states north of
the boundary deserved to be able to exercise their
sovereignty in favor of slavery if they so choose.
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Democracy and self-determination could clearly be
mobilized to extend an unjust institution that contradicted a
fundamental American commitment to equality.
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The Missouri crisis probed an enormously problematic area
of American politics that would explode in a civil war.
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As Thomas Jefferson observed about the Missouri crisis,
"This momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night,
awakened and filled me with terror."
Missouri's entrance threatened to throw this
parity in favor of slave interests.
The debate in Congress over the admission
of Missouri was extraordinarily bitter after
Congressman James Tallmadge from New
York proposed that slavery be prohibited in
the new state.
Slave states feared that if Congress
controlled the decision, then the new states
would have fewer rights than the original
ones
http://www.ushistory.org/us/23c.asp
• In an attempt to keep a legislative balance between the pro- and
anti- slavery factions, the Missouri Compromise delineated which
states would be free and which would not.
The Factory System Arrives in New England…But First….How
and When Did it Begin?
• The History of the Industrial Revolution in The United States: The March of
Mechanization
– A group of gifted British inventors, beginning about 1750, perfected a series of
machines for the mass production of textiles and this enslavement of steam multiplied
the power of human muscles some ten-thousand fold and ushered in the modern
factory system
• The Industrial Revolution was accompanied by a transformation in agricultural production and in the
methods of transportation and communication
• The Factory system gradually spread from Britain to other lands and it took a generation or so to
reach western Europe, and then the United States
– The American Republic was slow to embrace the factory system because:
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the soil cheap
labor was generally scarce
There were enough hands to operate machines
until immigrants began to arrive in mass in the 1840s
– Money for capital investment was not plentiful in pioneering America; raw materials lay
undeveloped, undiscovered, or unsuspected—much of coal was imported from Britain
– Just as labor was scarce, so were consumers—the young country at first lacked a
domestic market large enough to make factory-scale manufacturing profitable
– Established British factories provided cutthroat competition and posed another problem
– The British also enjoyed a monopoly of the textile machinery, whose secrets they were
anxious to hide from foreign competitors; parliament enacted laws to protect its
economy
– Not until the middle of the 19th century did the factories exceed output of the farms
Samuel Slater and Eli Whitney
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Samuel Slater has been acclaimed the “Father of the
Factory System”
• A skilled British mechanic, he was attracted
by bounties being offered to British workers
familiar with the textile machines; after
memorizing the plans for the machinery, he
escaped in disguise to America, where he
won the back of Moses Brown, a Quaker
capitalist in Rhode Island (he put into
operation in 1791 the first efficient
American machinery for spinning cotton
thread)
• Although the mechanism was ready, where
was the cotton fiber—process expensive
The first factory in the United States was begun after
George Washington became President. In 1790,
Samuel Slater, a cotton spinner's apprentice who left
England the year before with the secrets of textile
machinery, built a factory from memory to produce
spindles of yarn.
The factory had 72 spindles, powered by nine children
pushing foot treadles, soon replaced by water power.
Three years later, John and Arthur Shofield, who also
came from England, built the first factory to
manufacture woolens in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts-born Eli Whitney
• After graduating from Yale and journeying to
Georgia, in 1793, he built a crude machine called
the cotton gin that was 50 times more effective
than the hand process
• Almost overnight the raising of cotton became
highly profitable and the South was tied hand
and foot to the throne of King Cotton; the
insatiable demand for cotton revived the chains
on the limbs of the downtrodden southern
blacks
– South and North both prospered; slave-driving
planters cleared more acres for cotton, pushing
the Cotton Kingdom westward off the depleted
ride-water plains
– Factories at first flourished most actively in New
England, though they branched out into the
more populous areas of New York, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania; the South’s capital was bound
up in slaves—its local consumers for the most
part were desperately poor
New England Proved Profitable
New England was singularly favored as an industrial center for several reasons
• Dense population provided labor and accessible markets; shipping brought in capital; snug seaports made
import of raw materials and export of finished products easy
• The Rapid rivers provided abundant water power to turn the cogs of the machines; by 1860 more than 400
million pounds of southern cotton poured annually into the gaping maws of over a thousand mills, mostly in
the New England
• Manufacturing In The United States:
– America’s factories spread slowly until about 1807, when there began
the fateful sequence of the embargo, nonintercourse, and the War of
1812
• Stern necessity dictated the manufacture of substitutes for normal imports,
while the stoppage of European commerce was temporarily ruinous to Yankee
shipping
• Generous bounties were offered by local authorities from home-grown goods
– The manufacturing boom broke abruptly with the peace of Ghent in
1815
• British competitors unloaded their dammed-up surpluses at ruinously low
prices
• Responding to the pained out-cries, Congress provided some relief when it
passed the mildly protective Tariff of 1816—attempt to control the shape of the
economy
– As the factory system flourished, it embraced numerous other
industries besides textiles
• Prominent among them was the manufacturing of firearms and here the
wizardly Eli Whitney again appeared with an extraordinary contribution
• About 1798, Whitney seized upon the idea of having machines make each part,
so that muskets could be scrambled and reassembled—interchangeable parts
• The principle of interchangeable parts was widely adopted by 1850 and it
ultimately became the basis of modern mass-production, assembly-line
methods
MILL LIFE in LOWELL
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http://library.uml.edu/clh/mo.htm
The most physically striking change to the American Landscape was the FACTORY - Located along the Pawtucket
Falls, where the Merrimack River runs to the Atlantic Ocean – Lowell, Massachusetts, is one of early America’s
most important industrial cities.
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Beginning in 1820s, the nation’s largest textile factories were built in Lowell and thousands of women and men
flocked to the city to find jobs in the booming textile industry.
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Wealthy men from Boston invested large amounts of money to construct the massive mill buildings and the
extensive network of canals that brought water to their factories and powered the textile machinery.
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Rows of brick boardinghouses, in which many of the factory workers lived, sprang up in the shadow of the
mills.
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The factory bell summoned men and women to the mills where they toiled long hours at the various tasks—
carding, spinning, and weaving—to produce cotton cloth.
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Workers’ demands for shorter hours, better working conditions, and more pay so that they might share more
equally in fruits of their labor brought forth protests and the creation of labor organizations.
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Many of Lowell’s residents, like those in other American cities, sought financial prosperity and material gain,
but also educational achievement, a rich social life, and spiritual fulfillment.
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By 1850, Lowell had grown even beyond the imaginings of its founders: The city boasted a population of
33,000, the second largest in Massachusetts, and its ten large mill complexes employed more than 10,000
women and men.
The Industrialized United States
– The sewing machines, invented by Elias Howe in 1846 and perfected by Isaac Singer,
gave another strong boost to northern industrialization; the sewing machine became
the foundation of the ready-made clothing industry, which took root near the Civil War
– Each momentous new invention seemed to stimulate sill more imaginative inventions,
patents in 1800 numbered only 306 patents but by the end of 1860, it totaled 28,000
– Technical advances spurred equally important changes in the form and legal status of
business organizations—the principle of limited liability aided the concentration of
capital by permitting the individual investor to risk no more than his own share of stock
– One of the earliest investment capital companies, the Boston Associates, eventually
dominated the textile, railroad, insurance, and banking business of Massachusetts
– Laws of “free incorporation,” first passed in New York in 1848, meant that businessmen
could create corporations without applying for individual charters from legislatures
– Samuel F. B. Morse’s telegraph was among the inventions that tightened the sinews of
an increasingly complex business world; by the eve of the Civil War, a web of singing
wires spanned the continent, revolutionizing news gathering, diplomacy, and finance
Women, Children, Unions and the New
Working Class
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Workers and “Wage Slaves”
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One bad outgrowth of the factory system was an acute labor problem; the industrial revolution submerged the personal
association to the impersonal ownership of factories
Clearly the early factory system did now shower its benefits evenly on all
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By contrast, the lot of most adult wage workers improved markedly in the 1820s and 1830s; in flush of Jacksonian
democracy, many of the states granted the laborers the vote
As well as demanding the ten-hour day, higher wages, and tolerable working conditions, workers demanded public
education for children and an end to imprisonment for debt
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While many owners waxed fat, working people often wasted away at their workbenches; hours were long, wages were low, and meals
were skimpy
Workers were forced to toil in unsanitary buildings and were forbidden by law to form labor unions for such activities were regarded as
criminal conspiracies
Vulnerable to exploitation were child workers; in 1820 half the nation’s industrial toilers were children under ten years of age; they were
victims of factory labor
Employers fought the ten-hour day to the last ditch and argued that reduced hours would lessen production, increase costs, and
demoralize the workers—more free time
A red-letter gain was at length registered for labor in 1840, when President Van Buren established the ten-hour day for federal
employees on public works
Day laborers at last learned that their strongest weapon was to lay down their tools
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Dozens of strikes erupted in the 1830s and 1840s, most of them for higher wages, some for the ten-hour day, and a few for such unusual
goals as right to smoke on job
The workers usually lost more strikes than they won for the employer could resort to importing strikebreakers, often fresh off the boat
from the Old World
Labor’s early and painful efforts at organization had netted some 300,000 trade unionists by 1830; but such gains were negated with the
severe depression of 1837
As unemployment spread, union membership shriveled; yet toilers won a promising legal victory in 1842 when the supreme court of
Massachusetts ruled in the case of Commonwealth v. Hunt that labor unions were not illegal conspiracies
The Monroe Doctrine
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President James Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams - December 2, 1823
Concerns about other countries attempting to or even thinking about reclaiming any lands of the United States of America
European countries were continuing to annex other countries, Caribbean holdings…
Concerns of Russia looking to expand
Responses:
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There were actually two parts to Monroe's speech:
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One dealt with actions of the Russian government with respect to access to Alaska by ships of other nations. The United States objected to
this.
The second related to the former Spanish colonies in Latin America, which had taken advantage of the mother country’s distraction by the
Napoleonic Wars and achieved for independence in the early years of the 19th century. By the early 1820s, monarchical elements were in
control in continental Europe and rumors about the restoration of the Spanish empire began to fly. This was not good news for the United
States, which resented European involvement in its backyard, nor was it met with approval by Britain, which profited richly from Latin
American trade.
In his message to Congress, Monroe set forth the following principles, which would later become known as the Monroe
Doctrine:
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Tomas Jefferson responded that while America should avoid involving itself in strictly European matters, European non-intervention in this
hemisphere was of sufficient importance that the United States would be well advised to accept the British offer.
john Quincy Adams was not persuaded by the British expressions of friendship. In meetings of Monroe's cabinet in early November, Adams
argued that the interests of the United States would be better served by a unilateral declaration. Monroe agreed, and put the declaration into
his December 2 speech before Congress.
The Western Hemisphere was no longer open for colonization
The political system of the Americas was different from Europe
The United States would regard any interference in Western hemispheric affairs as a threat to its security
The United States would refrain from participation in European wars and would not disturb existing colonies in the Western Hemisphere
The immediate impact of the Monroe Doctrine was mixed. It was successful to the extent that the continental powers did
not attempt to revive the Spanish empire, but this was on account of the strength of the British Navy, not American military
might, which was relatively limited. Designed to counter an immediate threat to American interests, Monroe's position did
not instantly become a national doctrine. In fact, it largely disappeared from the American political consciousness for a
couple decades, until events in the 1840's revived it. The efforts of Britain and France to involve themselves in the
annexation of Texas, Britain's disputes in Oregon and potential involvement in California, led to a revival, which President
Polk put into words in a speech on December 2, 1845, the 22nd anniversary of the original.
Andrew Jackson is Elected President
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http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/presidents/jackson.ht
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Andrew Jackson, considered the father of the modern
Presidency, significantly contributed to the expansion of
that office.
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Jackson used his veto power extensively. He vetoed more
bills in his term of office than all the previous presidents
put together. Jackson was also the first to use the pocket
veto, a delaying tactic in which the President does not sign
a bill within ten days of the end of the Congressional term,
preventing it from becoming law.
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One of Jackson's major tests as President came over the
issue of tariff and nullification. This conflict masked the
larger issue of states rights. There had been rising
sectional unhappiness over the higher tariffs imposed by
the federal government. South Carolina objected outright
to the tariffs, and to counteract the tariffs, passed a
nullification act. Jackson refused to tolerate such an act,
and threatened to hang those supporting it. Eventually, a
compromise was reached, but not before the groundwork
was laid for an ongoing tension between the states and
the Presidency which would eventually lead to the Civil
War.
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He was considered the first popularly elected President,
and, throughout his Presidency, acted his role as a
populist.
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Elected 1828 and 1832…
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Andrew Jackson's election in 1828 is described as The
Revolution of 1828. It brought to power the first American
President not rooted in the Eastern aristocracy. He was
elected by the "common" man and acted within that
mandate.
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Jackson's Presidency is the beginning of the modern
Presidency, one in which the powers vested in the office of
the President grew immensely.
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Jackson was the first President to introduce the spoils
system to national government, basing appointments on
political support. Thus, patronage - present on a state level
- became predominant on a national level. Jackson used
his function as the head of the party to enhance his power.
Jackson was a major opponent of the Second Bank of the
United States, considered an instrument of the Eastern
establishment. He succeeded in having the bank's charter
revoked.
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When Jackson retired from the Presidency, he departed
with his popularity intact and the Presidency a much
stronger institution.
The Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 7th
President
• Andrew Jackson - Good Evil & The Presidency
- PBS Documentary
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGfxyeuy8u8
Abolitionists Establish the “Underground Railroad”
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http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/multimedia/interactiv
e/the-underground-railroad-timeline/?ar_a=1
Myths of the Underground railroad:
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http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/myths.htm
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The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a
railroad - It got its name because its activities had to be carried
out in secret, using darkness or disguise, and because railway
terms were used by those involved with system to describe
how it worked - Various routes were lines, stopping places
were called stations, those who aided along the way were
conductors and their charges were known as packages or
freight.
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The network of routes extended through 14 Northern states
and “the promised land” of Canada--beyond the reach of
fugitive-slave hunters.
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Those who most actively assisted slaves to escape by way of
the “railroad” were members of the free black community
(including former slaves like Harriet Tubman), Northern
abolitionists, philanthropists and church leaders like Quaker
Thomas Garrett.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe, famous for her novel Uncle Tom's
Cabin, gained firsthand knowledge of the plight of fugitive
slaves through contacts with the Underground Railroad in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
People of Interest:
Harriett Tubman:
http://www.history.com/topics/undergroundrailroad/videos#harriet-tubman-and-the-underground-railroad
Frederick Douglass:
– Frederick Douglass (1818-95) was a prominent American
abolitionist, author and orator.
– Born a slave, Douglass escaped at age 20 and went on to
become a world-renowned anti-slavery activist.
– His three autobiographies are considered important
works of the slave narrative tradition as well as classics of
American autobiography. Douglass' work as a reformer
ranged from his abolitionist activities in the early 1840s
to his attacks on Jim Crow and lynching in the 1890s.
– For 16 years he edited an influential black newspaper and
achieved international fame as an inspiring and
persuasive speaker and writer.
– In thousands of speeches and editorials, he levied a
powerful indictment against slavery and racism, provided
an indomitable voice of hope for his people, embraced
antislavery politics and preached his own brand of
American ideals.
http://www.history.com/topics/frederickdouglass/videos#frederick-douglas
The Underground Railroad was the term used to describe a
network of persons who helped escaped slaves on their way to
freedom in the northern states or Canada.
•
Although George Washington had commented upon such
practices by the Quakers as early as the 1780s, the term gained
currency in the 1830s, as northern abolitionists became more
vocal and southern suspicions of threats to their peculiar
institution grew.
•
The popular perception of a well-coordinated system of Quaker,
Covenanter, and Methodist "conductors" secretly helping
fugitives from "station" to "station" is an exaggeration.
•
The practice involved more spontaneity than the railroad
analogy suggests. By the time escapees reached areas where
sympathetic persons might assist them, they had already
completed the most difficult part of their journey.
Congress Passes the Indian Removal Act
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http://loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Indian.
html
Primary Source: http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/ampage?collId=llrd&fileName=010/llrd010
.db&recNum=438
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by
Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing
the president to grant unsettled lands west of
the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands
within existing state borders.
A few tribes went peacefully, but many
resisted the relocation policy. During the fall
and winter of 1838 and 1839, the Cherokees
were forcibly moved west by the United States
government.
Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this
forced march, which became known as the
"Trail of Tears."
• President Andrew Jackson
outlined his Indian removal policy
in his Second Annual Message to
Congress on December 6, 1830.
• Jackson's comments on Indian
removal begin with the words,
– "It gives me pleasure to announce
to Congress that the benevolent
policy of the Government, steadily
pursued for nearly thirty years, in
relation to the removal of the
Indians beyond the white
settlements is approaching to a
happy consummation. Two
important tribes have accepted
the provision made for their
removal at the last session of
Congress, and it is believed that
their example will induce the
remaining tribes also to seek the
same obvious advantages."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html
Nat Turner Rebels 1831
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Nat Turner was born on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County,
Virginia
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Concerned to be a prophet – see three visions:
Deeply religious
In 1821, Turner ran away from his overseer, returning after thirty days
because of a vision in which the Spirit had told him to "return to the
service of my earthly master.”
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The next year, following the death of his master, Samuel Turner, Nat
was sold to Thomas Moore.
Three years later, Nat Turner had another vision. He saw lights in the sky
and prayed to find out what they meant. Then "... while laboring in the
field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as though it were dew
from heaven, and I communicated it to many, both white and black, in
the neighborhood; and then I found on the leaves in the woods
hieroglyphic characters and numbers, with the forms of men in different
attitudes, portrayed in blood, and representing the figures I had seen
before in the heavens."
On May 12, 1828, Turner had his third vision: "I heard a loud noise in the
heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent
was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the
sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for
the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last
should be first... And by signs in the heavens that it would make known
to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign
appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the
appearance of the sign... I should arise and prepare myself and slay my
enemies with their own weapons.“
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At the beginning of the year 1830, Turner was moved to the home of
Joseph Travis, the new husband of Thomas Moore's widow. His official
owner was Putnum Moore, still a young child. Turner described Travis as
a kind master, against whom he had no complaints.
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Then, in February, 1831, there was an eclipse of the sun. Turner took this to be
the sign he had been promised and confided his plan to the four men he trusted
the most, Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam. They decided to hold the insurrection
on the 4th of July and began planning a strategy. However, they had to postpone
action because Turner became ill.
On August 13, there was an atmospheric disturbance in which the sun appeared
bluish-green. This was the final sign, and a week later, on August 21, Turner and
six of his men met in the woods to eat a dinner and make their plans. At 2:00
that morning, they set out to the Travis household, where they killed the entire
family as they lay sleeping. They continued on, from house to house, killing all of
the white people they encountered. Turner's force eventually consisted of more
than 40 slaves, most on horseback.
By about mid-day on August 22, Turner decided to march toward Jerusalem, the
closest town. By then word of the rebellion had gotten out to the whites;
confronted by a group of militia, the rebels scattered, and Turner's force became
disorganized. After spending the night near some slave cabins, Turner and his
men attempted to attack another house, but were repulsed. Several of the rebels
were captured. The remaining force then met the state and federal troops in
final skirmish, in which one slave was killed and many escaped, including Turner.
In the end, the rebels had stabbed, shot and clubbed at least 55 white people to
death.
Nat Turner hid in several different places near the Travis farm, but on October 30
was discovered and captured. His "Confession," dictated to physician Thomas R.
Gray, was taken while he was imprisoned in the County Jail. On November 5, Nat
Turner was tried in the Southampton County Court and sentenced to execution.
He was hanged, and then skinned, on November 11.
In total, the state executed 55 people, banished many more, and acquitted a
few. The state reimbursed the slaveholders for their slaves. But in the hysterical
climate that followed the rebellion, close to 200 black people, many of whom
had nothing to do with the rebellion, were murdered by white mobs. In addition,
slaves as far away as North Carolina were accused of having a connection with
the insurrection, and were subsequently tried and executed.
The state legislature of Virginia considered abolishing slavery, but in a close
vote decided to retain slavery and to support a repressive policy against black
people, slave and free.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Delivers the “American Scholar” Speech
Audio recording:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Ralph+Waldo+Emerson+Delivers+the+%e2%80%9cAmerican+Scholar%e2%80%9d+Speech&F
ORM=VIRE5#view=detail&mid=B678DCC53F78BD3B7772B678DCC53F78BD3B7772
Word text: http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm
• The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson
on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
• He was invited to speak in recognition of his groundbreaking work
Nature, published a year earlier, in which he established a new way
for America's fledgling society to regard the world.
• Sixty years after declaring independence, American culture was still
heavily influenced by Europe, and Emerson, for possibly the first
time in the country's history, provided a visionary philosophical
framework for escaping "from under its iron lids" and building a
new, distinctly American cultural identity.
Frederick Douglass Publishes his Biography
• PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539.html
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Frederick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman.
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After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note
for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing.
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He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves did not have the
intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.
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Many Northerners also found it hard to believe that such a great orator had been a slave.
•
Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj-gz3u-1jM
John O’Sullivan Writes About “Manifest Destiny”
•
Manifest Destisy, “City Upin a Hill”: http://suite101.com/a/john-osullivan-and-manifest-destiny-a220806
• Primary Source:
• John Louis O'Sullivan was an American columnist and editor
who used the term "Manifest Destiny" in 1845 to promote the
annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United
States.
http://www.historytools.org/sources/manifest_destiny.pdf
• O'Sullivan was an influential political writer and advocate for
the Democratic Party at that time and served as US Minister to
Portugal during the administration of President Franklin
Pierce, but he largely faded from prominence soon thereafter.
• He was rescued from obscurity in the twentieth century after
the famous phrase "Manifest Destiny" was traced back to him.