NOTES:  11/5/2012

The focus of these notes will be the key events leading to the Civil War, some being more influential than others.

ELECTION OF 1816:  Rufus King will be the last Federalist candidate and was defeated easily.  James Monroe, the Republican candidate, another Virginian, was elected.  This will initiate the "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" AND one-party government.

There was a very strong NATIONALISTIC feeling in the U.S. following the War of 1812 as many Americans felt the U.S. had won that war.  Evidence of this nationalism was President Madison's call in his last annual message to Congress in 1815 in which he stressed the need for strong national defenses, protection for manufacturers, and construction of internal improvements such as roads and canals.
Congress will authorize a standing army of 10,000 men and $8,000,000 for new ships.  Also passed the Tariff Act of 1816 to protect U.S. manufacturers......congress re-charters the Bank of the United States.

Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun will strongly promote internal improvements.  Madison believed in this need but he did not believe the federal government had the authority to set aside monies for this purpose.  John C. Calhoun had proposed monies in the BONUS BILL. 

IMPORTANT UNDERSTANDING:  Chief Justice John Marshall was responsible for rulings that greatly increased the power of the federal government.

States do begin to build roads, but most roads in this period were muddy and dusty, especially those in the West.

New states are being created:  Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama (1819).

Americans are moving westward....one in four lived west of the Appalachian Mts. by 1820.

ADAMS-ONIS TREATY, 1819......Spain ceded all its territory east of the Mississippi.....the treaty also fixed a boundary line between all Spanish and American land claims west of the Mississippi in a step look up to the 42nd parallel and westward to the Pacific.

PANIC OF 1819.......leads to a depression....main cause was overexpansion of credit to buy western lands......it hurt the West the most and the poorer in the country.

ELECTION OF 1820.....Monroe re-elected

Republican Party will begin to split by the end of Monroe's presidency.

SECTIONALISM growing due to different economic interests.....Example:  Tariff of 1816 was opposed by the South and Southwest;  New England states, middle states, and west support it.

Slavery was increasingly becoming an issue for the nation.  The TALLMADGE AMENDMENT, introduced in the H.of R. proposed that no more slaves should be brought into Missouri and children born to slaves should gradually be EMANCIPATED.  The Senate defeated the amendment.

MISSOURI COMPROMISE, 1820.....Very important!!!!!!  Largely the work of Henry Clay....it would admit Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state....this would keep the balanced in the Senate.....Slavery was to be prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the line 36 degrees, 30 minutes.......It was passed.

MONROE DOCTRINE, 1823:  Very important.....READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ELECTION OF 1824:  John Quincy Adams elected......Angers Andrew Jackson's supporters.

TARIFF OF 1828 OR TARIFF OF ABOMINATIONS.....South disliked it.....Results in South Carolina issuing the SOUTH CAROLINA EXPOSITION denouncing the tariff as unconstitutional and called upon the states to NULLIFY it.  Secretly written by John C. Calhoun......Only supported by South Carolina.

ELECTION OF 1828:  Andrew Jackson elected.....a very dirty campaign.....the COMMON MAN had elected Jackson....Jackson will increase the power of the presidency more than any president before him......Democratic-Republican Party splits into the NATIONAL REPUBLICAN OF Adams and Clay and the Democratic-Republican Party of Calhoun, Jackson, and Martin Van Buren.

JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY:
1. Great use of Spoils System
2. Webster-Hayne Debates, 1830
3. Re-elected in 1832 by defeating Henry Clay....First third political party introduced:  Anti-Masonic Party....Nominating conventions introduced to nominate candidates rather that party caucuses.....Formal party platforms adopted by the Anti-masons and National Republicans
4. Removal of the five civilized tribes to the West
5. Democratic-Republicans become the Democrats
6. Whig Party begins due to the nullification crisis and the Bank war.  Made up of those who opposed Jackson....Led by Henry Clay and DANIEL WEBSTER.
7. Veto of BUS re-charter bill (sponsored by Henry Clay); Jackson does not like Henry Clay and does not like the Bank of the United States.
8. Tariff of 1832 (MUST READ ABOUT).....Increases South Carolina opposition.....NULLIFICATION proposed again

ELECTION OF 1836:  Whigs have several candidates;  Democrats nominate Maring Van Buren who will be elected by an overwhelming electoral vote but narrow popular vote......He was Jackson's hand-picked successor.

ELECTION OF 1840:  Whigs nominate WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON with JOHN TYLER as his running mate....FIRST ELECTION to experience a MASS TURNOUT.  Harrison WON.  Harrison dies after one month in office due to pneumonia.  TYLER comes PRESIDENT.

TYLER'S PRESIDENCY:  Tyler was NOT a strong Whig and he and Clay strongly disagree and Tyler will continually oppose Henry Clay with the exception of the Tariff of 1842.
The Democratic Party becomes more and more a southern party during Tyler's presidency.  Whigs are more northern.