Madison
to Manifest Destiny
History M07A - Dr. Krister Swanson -
Moorpark College
Madison’s Presidency
- Tensions on the frontier + tensions over trade/shipping lead
to…
- War of 1812, establishes final break from GB, gets us out of
France/GB death grip
- Win leads to growing nationalism, sets stage for Jackson,
Indian removal, etc.
- Dolley Madison sets standard for role of women in the capitol
Monroe’s Presidency
- 1820: Missouri Compromise shows growing tension over slavery
- 1823: Revolutions in Latin America lead to Monroe Doctrine –
U.S. asserts itself as supreme power in Western Hemisphere
- Election of 1824: A “Corrupt Bargain” brings John Q. Adams
to White House
The Market Revolution
- Improvements in transportation (first
roads & canals, then steamboats & RR’s)
- allows for
expansion of manufacturing – early factories (textiles, shoes, etc.)
- Workingwomen -
seek autonomy & new opportunity
- start of wage labor system, workers
subject to fluctuations in labor market
- Boom in banking, banks key to business
development, bank notes become key part of money supply
- accompanying boom in commercial &
corporate law, lawyers become central to economy
- Economic growth increases
susceptibility to booms and busts (business cycle)
Cultural and Religious Shifts
- The Family and Separate Spheres
- Push for greater public education
- The Second Great Awakening
- The Temperance Movement and Moral
Reform (protecting the home)
- Growth of abolition (most northerners
anti-black, free labor)
The Spread of Democracy
- 1828 (Jackson
vs. John Q. Adams): voters now involved in selection of presidential
electors
- Partisan Identity grows (newspapers)
- Character issues dominate Election of
1828 (Jackson’s temper
& toughness vs. Adams piety & intellect)
Jackson’s
Democratic Agenda
- Spoils system: party loyalists
throughout bureaucracy
- Limited government, & limited
support for transportation & other things favored by big business
- Tax $$ for general benefit
Jackson & the Democrats
- Indian Policy and the Trail of Tears
- SC tries to nullify the Tariff of
Abominations, Jackson uses force to make them comply
- Refuses to renew bank charter on
argument that it only favors the elite
- Wins reelection on class antagonism
created by Bank War
- Unregulated economy booms but then
inflation goes crazy (unregulated money supply)
- Jackson
tries to regulate, Banks respond with contraction & economy
collapses in 1837
- Van Buren serves one term in panic
conditions
Westward Movement
- Manifest Destiny - white culture
destines to control all land from sea to shining sea
- Oregon Trail
start of first push to far west - clash with Plains Indians
- The Mormon Exodus
- American settlers push into the
Mexican Borderlands (grow cotton in TX, etc.)
- TX wins its independence
Mexican-American War
- Politics of Expansion driven by slavery
- Polk big expansionist, provokes war
with Mexico
- Conditions are difficult but U.S.
wins big, pays Mexico
$15m for territory (CA, AZ, NV, UT, NM)
- Finishes Manifest Destiny, gold
discovered in CA sets off settlement boom
Economic & Industrial Evolution
- MW easier to farm than NE
- Improvements in Ag technology also help
- Land Policy encouraged speculation but
did make land more available to poor (land rich & labor poor)
- Mechanization makes manufacturing more
efficient
Railroads
- develop key
industries (coal, iron, lumber, etc.)
- make industrialization &
settlement possible
- Massive government aid & land
grants to RR companies (private but had big government help)
Free Labor
- The Free-Labor Ideal: work to buy own
land tools, prosper for self, hire another beginner to help him along
- Many pursue this ideal, creates mobile
society
- Slavery threatens this notion
- Economic Inequality tough to explain
with free labor model
- Immigrants from Germany
& Ireland
pursue this ideal
Reforming Society & Self
- The Pursuit of Perfection:
Transcendentalists (look to self) and Utopians (build perfect societies
- Women’s Rights Activists (Senenca Falls
– start of suffrage movement)
- Abolitionists continued to push for
emancipation throughout the 1840’s & 1850sand the American Ideal