The Early 19th Century -
Madison to Manifest Destiny
History M25 - 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
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 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)
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 (NE to MW to Utah)
- American settlers push into the Mexican Borderlands (grow cotton
in TX, etc.)
- 1836: TX wins its independence (Alamo)
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)
- This & Oregon 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 through mid-1800s
Railroads
- Push development in key industries (coal, iron, lumber, etc.)
- make industrialization & settlement possible at much greater
distances
- Massive government aid & land grants to private RR companies
- This starts concentration of capital & very wealthy
industrial upper class
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
- Economic Inequality tough to explain with free labor model – many
see slavery as primary cause of inequality
- Growing #s of immigrants from Germany & Ireland pursue this
ideal
Continued Attempts at Reform
- The Pursuit of Perfection: Transcendentalists (look to self) and
Utopians (build perfect societies)
- Women’s Rights Activists (Seneca Falls – start of suffrage
movement)
- Abolitionists continued to push for emancipation throughout the
1840’s & 1850s