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THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1828-1850): SECTIONALISM
AND MANIFEST DESTINY
The years between 1828 and 1850 were marked by rapid change, social turmoil,
and vigorous growth for the young American republic. During this time, the last of
the Founding Fathers died, seven new presidents took office, and the American
political process became significantly more democratic. In addition, new lands
were acquired from Mexico and seven new states were admitted to the Union.
East of the Mississippi, sectional divisions between North and South widened,
putting pro-slavery advocates in the South and anti-slavery reformers in the North
increasingly onto a collision course. Their disagreements hinged increasingly
upon economic justifications for slavery among southerners and moral outrage
among northerners. Religious beliefs, racist attitudes, and democratic impulses in
the North gave rise to a variety of social reform movements, chief among them
perhaps being abolitionism, whose primary aim was to put a definitive end to
slavery in America. The unresolved issue of slavery affected the admission of
new states to the Union and frequently poisoned Congressional proceedings.
Meanwhile, Americans in record numbers were moving westward, gradually
pushing the frontier across the Mississippi river and ever closer to the Pacific
Ocean. When gold was discovered in California in 1849, the movement westward
became a flood of humanity seeking quick riches. Only a few ultimately struck it
rich, but many of the less fortunate established permanent homes nearby,
assuring the settlement of the far West and swelling the populations of western
territories seeking statehood. Finally, revolutionary technological developments
during this period were to have a profound impact upon America. The foundation
of a modern factory system was established in New England, steam engines
were improved and adapted to factory machines and new modes of
transportation, canals were dug to speed the movement of bulk goods, railroads
made their first appearance and proved to be even more versatile than canals for
transporting freight and passengers, and miles of new roads were built, some of
them even paved. These technical innovations were more readily accepted and
implemented in the North during this time—a reality which was to have a
significant impact on the outcome of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
In the election of 1828, Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams and
became the seventh President of the United States, much to his own satisfaction
and to that of his followers, all of whom had felt cheated by the alleged "corrupt
bargain" of 1824. Jackson broke the monopoly on executive power which had
been held previously by well-to-do New Englanders and prosperous southern
planters from Virginia. Jackson himself was a somewhat rough-cut figure—an
Indian fighter, victor over the British at New Orleans in 1815, a resident of
Tennessee in what was then the West, a man with a reputation for personal
toughness whose nickname was "Old Hickory," and a product of the frontier
whom the masses could more readily identify with, admire, and follow. His
Democratic Party reflected rural more than urban values. Since foreign import
taxes (tariffs), banks, and infrastructure development were largely of benefit to
eastern merchants, factory owners, and urban dwellers, and since taxes in
general were often viewed as a form of governmental oppression, Democrats
tended to oppose them, but at the same time, Democrats also tended to be
fiercely patriotic. Politically, they sought to empower the common man—at least
the common white man—and to give him a more central role in the American
political process. Fewer than a quarter million popular votes were cast in the
presidential election of 1824, the first election in which popular votes were even
recorded.
Approximately 1.1 million votes were cast in 1828, with Jackson receiving almost
150,000 more than John Quincy Adams. The number of voters participating in
national elections continued to rise in succeeding years, approaching the 3
million mark in the election of 1848. As president, Jackson also instituted the socalled "spoils system," by which he rewarded a large number of his political
supporters with governmental positions and appointments. The term derives from
the phrase, "to the victor belong the spoils," attributed to a New York senator just
after Jackson's election in 1828. The flaw in the system, of course, was that
governmental positions were frequently filled on the basis of party loyalty rather
than on suitability or competence. Nevertheless, many commoners who likely
would not have been selected for governmental service in previous
administrations found positions in Jackson's government, and a number of
presidents to come would follow Jackson's example. So important was this
gradual democratization process of American politics, which began with Andrew
Jackson's presidency, that historians often refer to the period from the 1820's to
1850 as the Jacksonian Era.
A significant crisis with long term implications arose in 1828 when John Quincy
Adams was still in the White House. The National Republicans in Congress
approved a bill to impose a tariff or import tax on cheap foreign goods—
particularly goods manufactured in Britain. This measure was aimed at protecting
America's infant industries in New England. The effect of the tariff was to raise
the cost of British goods to the point where Americans would buy primarily
American- made products. The tariff was opposed and resented by southerners,
however, because it increased the cost of manufactured goods which they
needed but could not produce for themselves and because it induced the British
to buy less raw cotton from them. In addition, most foreign trade was conducted
through northern ports like Boston and particularly New York, and relatively few
foreign goods came directly to southern ports like Charleston or Savannah.
Southerners therefore knew they would not be deriving much revenue
themselves from the new tariff. Led by Vice-President John C. Calhoun of
Charleston, South Carolina, southerners lodged a formal protest against the
Tariff of 1828, which they began to refer to as the Tariff of Abominations.
Calhoun ultimately drew upon the federalist concept of "states' rights" and
declared that states had the right to "nullify" laws passed by Congress, to declare
them legally null, void, and unconstitutional. This controversial idea divided
politicians even in South Carolina and frankly enraged President Jackson, who
ultimately sought Congressional authority to use military action if necessary to
force South Carolina's compliance with the tariff law. This crisis, created by the
Tariff of 1828 and the Nullification Crisis which it provoked was resolved without
armed conflict by passage of a compromise Tariff in 1833, brokered by Henry
Clay of Kentucky. This incident, however, proved in retrospect to be a harbinger
of things to come, for South Carolina in December of 1860 would once again
invoke the principle of states' rights and the right of nullification, thereby setting in
motion a series of events which would culminate in a devastating civil war.
In the election of 1836, the Democratic candidate, Martin Van Buren of New
York, was elected the eighth President of the United States. He had served
previously as Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State and Vice-President, and his
intention was largely to continue Jackson's policies. Both Jackson and Van Buren
had opposed the idea of a National Bank, as an institution chiefly serving
northern interests and as one of questionable constitutionality. Nonetheless, two
national banks had been chartered by Congress. The First Bank of the United
States had operated for twenty years (1791-1811), as had the Second Bank of
the United
States (1816-1836). Jackson's idea was to replace the Second Bank with a
variety of smaller, regional institutions, sometimes called by his political
opponents "pet banks" or "wildcat banks." They proved to be notoriously
unstable, since they operated with little oversight from the government and since
their officers were prone to risky investments in hope of getting rich quick. They
also often issued their own paper currency, much of which was rendered
worthless if they went bankrupt and collapsed. Bank failures could also have
wider implications, leading to both the bankruptcy of individuals and to nationwide
financial crises. The so-called "Panic of 1837," an economic recession which was
in large part a result of these Jacksonian banking reforms, doomed Van Buren to
a single term.
In the election of 1840, the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison, became the
ninth President of the United States. Like Andrew Jackson, he had been a
general in the War of 1812 and an Indian fighter. His main claim to fame was his
victory over the Shawnee in the Indiana Territory in November of 1811. The
Battle of Tippecanoe disrupted the Shawnee chief Tecumseh's attempt to create
a united native American confederacy in the region and made Harrison a national
hero, who afterward was referred to as "Old Tippecanoe." He ran for the
presidency in 1840 with fellow Whig and Virginian, John Tyler, campaigning
under the slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too!" Criticized by his opponents for
having been born in a log cabin, when in fact he had been born to a well-to-do
family in Virginia, Harrison deliberately campaigned using the symbols of the log
cabin and hard cider, both of which, ironically, endeared him to many voters living
on or near the frontier. He was the first of only two Whig candidates to win the
presidency during the Jacksonian Era. The party had originated in the 1820's
from a split in the National Republican ranks and was specifically organized to
oppose Andrew Jackson and his policies. In general, Whigs supported whatever
Democrats opposed, such as tariffs, a national bank, infrastructure development,
and a strong if not dominant Congress. Unfortunately, after delivering a two hour
speech outdoors on a cold and rainy inauguration day (March 4, 1841), Harrison
developed pneumonia and subsequently died on April 4. He was the first
president to die in office, and his presidency remains the shortest on record. His
Vice-President, John Tyler, then became the tenth President of the United
States, in accord with the provisions for succession detailed in the Constitution.
Being the first such succession, there was some initial uncertainty about Tyler's
presidential status, but he quickly exerted his authority and established the
precedent that presidents who came to the presidency as he had would have the
same status as any duly elected president. Tyler finished Harrison's term of
office, but having alienated even his own party with his southern sympathies, he
stood little chance of election in 1844 and chose to retire to his native Virginia.
In 1844, the Democratic Party recaptured the presidency with the election of
James K. Polk, the eleventh President of the United States. Polk was born in
North Carolina but later moved to Tennessee, where he began his political
career. He was a Representative from Tennessee from 1825 to 1839 and served
as Speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839. He then served as Governor of
Tennessee from 1839 to 1841. An ardent expansionist, Polk's policies as
president were aimed at adding new territory to the nation and encouraging
settlement of the West. He offered to buy from Mexico territory now making up
the southwestern part of the United States, and when that effort failed, sought to
win it from Mexico by war. The Mexican War (1846-1848) proved to be important
not only because of new territory acquired but also because it gave many of the
officers who were to fight for both North and South during the Civil War their first
experience of combat and command. Polk declined to run for reelection in 1848,
primarily because of ill health, and in fact he died only a few months after leaving
office. The Whigs again recaptured the presidency in 1848 with the election of
another veteran of the War of 1812, Indian fighter, and general during the
Mexican War—Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President of the United States. Having
never held political office before, Taylor was not particularly committed to any
party's political agenda, including that of the Whig Party which had nominated
him for president. He viewed himself as an independent and thereby made
enemies, even within his own party. His political influence, however, was to be
relatively slight, for he died unexpectedly on July 9, 1850, after a brief illness. On
July 4, he had attended a ceremony marking the beginning of construction of the
Washington Monument and had fallen ill later the same day. Thus, the only two
Whigs to be elected president in general elections died in office and were the first
presidents in American history to be succeeded by their Vice-Presidents. VicePresident Millard Fillmore, also a Whig, completed Taylor's term but failed to
receive his party's nomination for president in the election of 1852.
The early 19th century was a period of rapid technological innovation and
development in America. Eli Whitney's cotton gin (short for "engine," meaning
"machine") first appeared in the 1790's, and its influence in the early 1800's was
to be immense. It quickly and efficiently separated cotton lint, used in the
manufacture of thread and cloth, from cotton seeds, which could be pressed for
their valuable oils. Before it became available, seeds had to be removed by
hand—a process that was slow and expensive. This single machine made cotton
production in the South profitable, and cotton production in turn made slavery
necessary, inducing the South to base its regional economy largely on this single
cash crop. Also, just as the cotton gin was being developed, a textile industry
was being founded in New England by immigrants from Britain and in some
cases by Americans who had traveled to Britain to learn its textile manufacturing
methods. Southern growers were therefore able to sell their raw cotton both
domestically and on the foreign market.
By 1807, Robert Fulton's Clermont, the first operational steamboat, was traveling
up and down the Hudson river, inaugurating a transportation revolution which
was to transform America in the coming decades. The first steam-powered
railroads appeared as early as the 1820's in England and soon afterward in
America, but the great age of railroad expansion in America would not come until
after the Civil War. Major roads were under construction in America also by the
early 1800's, beginning with several regional "turnpikes". Work on the so-called
"National Road" began in Maryland in 1811, and it ultimately reached into Illinois
upon completion in 1839. The Boonsboro Turnpike in Maryland, completed in
1822, is usually recognized as America's first paved road. Between 1817 and
1825, the Erie Canal was dug to link the Hudson river at Albany with Lake Erie at
Buffalo, New York. Although expensive and controversial at the time, it stimulated
unprecedented economic growth in the region, and its economic value far
exceeded the estimates of its backers. Furthermore, it stimulated a flurry of
canal-building in the East.
In the 1830's and 1840's, several American inventions were to have a significant
impact on modern life and culture. In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick received a
patent for the first mechanical reaper or harvester, a mechanical device for
harvesting grain. His harvester and the improved agricultural devices which it
spawned allowed fewer farmers to process larger volumes of grain and in time
helped to make America one of the world's chief agricultural producers. In 1835,
Samuel Colt invented the revolver, commonly called a "six-shooter." This
handgun quickly became an essential possession of pioneers moving westward
and of people living in western territories of the United States. In 1838, Samuel
F.B. Morse invented a practical system for sending messages with electrical
signals, the "morse code," and in 1843 he convinced Congress to appropriate
funds for stringing telegraph lines between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Before long, there would be hundreds of miles of telegraph lines interconnecting
the entire country and inaugurating a communications revolution. In 1839,
Charles Goodyear discovered, quite by accident, how to make durable rubber
from latex, a natural sap from tropical trees. This invention would find broad
applications in the years ahead. Finally, in 1846, Elias Howe obtained a patent
for the first modern sewing machine, a device which would not only change the
way clothes were made in the home but give rise to a clothing industry both in
America and across the world.
Around 1800, a second religious revival movement began in America, rivaling the
First Great Awakening of almost a century before. It gained considerable
momentum in the 1820's, 1830's, and 1840's, and spread from the East to the
frontier. Known as the Second Great Awakening, it had a transforming effect on
American culture and helped pave the path to civil war. Ordinary people were not
only converted but enjoined to change their sinful ways, to live lives in imitation of
Christ, and to be agents of change in the world. The followers of the apocalyptic
preacher, William Miller, called Millerites, fervently believed Miller's predictions of
the Second Coming of Christ in 1844, and were bitterly disappointed when it
failed to occur. His movement, however, gave rise to a new sect which survives
today—the Seventh-day Adventists. The most important legacy of the Second
Great Awakening, however, was that it inspired a wide range of social reform
movements, including campaigns to control the sale, consumption, and abuse of
alcoholic beverages (temperance), to improve education, to found utopian
communes, to extend the rights of women, to put an end to the slave trade, and
particularly to put an end to slavery itself (abolitionism). Much of the moral
indignation which northerners came to have against slavery rested on a religious
foundation created by the Second Great Awakening.
By any measure, one of the most important occurrences of the period between
1828 and 1850 was the Westward Movement, the migration of vast numbers of
settlers from the East toward the Mississippi river and beyond into the so-called
"Trans-Mississippi West." A major obstacle to this migration, so far as many
settlers were concerned, was the native Indian population lying across their path.
To many of them, Indians were at best a hindrance and a nuisance, at worst
inferior and savage creatures to be removed by whatever means necessary. In
general, the United States government agreed and passed legislation to acquire
Indian lands or to remove Inidans forcibly to reservations in remote and, frankly,
less valuable parts of the country. The wholesale relocation of southeastern
tribes was authorized by the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and the subsequent
"Trail of Tears" resulted in thousands of deaths among Cherokee Indians from
eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, many of whom began their long
and arduous journey to reservation lands in Oklahoma from Chattanooga,
Tennessee.
Around 1810, Moses Austin (and later his son Stephen Austin) conceived the
idea of bringing settlers into the region which is now Texas. At the time, it
belonged to Mexico. The Mexican government sanctioned the migration at first,
but Mexican officials became alarmed as the number of Americans began to
grow rapidly. When restrictions were imposed upon them, they protested and
continued to move into the region without permission. That prompted the
Mexican dictator, Santa Anna, to action, and in 1836, the settlers declared war on
Mexico. They were defeated at the historic siege of the Alamo in early March, but
they defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto only a few weeks later,
forcing the Mexican government to recognize their independence. The Lone Star
Republic of Texas (its flag bore a single star) was thus established in 1836, and
Texas subsequently became a state in 1845. Political columnist, John L.
O'Sullivan, writing in the "Democratic Review" in 1845 had argued for Texas
statehood and in his article entitled "Annexation" had first used the term,
"Manifest Destiny." He meant to suggest that America was clearly ("manifestly")
fated ("destined") to spread from Atlantic coast to Pacific coast and that this
continent-wide expansion was God's will. The term was quickly picked up by
others and used to justify a variety of efforts to incorporate western lands into the
growing American Union.
The Mexican War (1846-1848) which followed resulted in the acquisition of new
territories now making up the American Southwest. These lands of the so-called
"Mexican Cession" included what is now California, Nevada, Utah, most of
Arizona, and the western parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Anticipating the eventual addition of these lands to the United States,
Pennsylvania Senator David Wilmot proposed in 1846 that slavery be banned
from any states organized from them. Called the "Wilmot Proviso," it passed in
the House of Representatives twice but was blocked each time in the Senate.
New territory thus was to intensify sectional strife fueled by the slavery issue.
New states added to the Union between 1828 and 1850 included: Arkansas
(1836), Michigan (1837), Florida (1845), Texas (1845), Iowa (1846), Wisconsin
(1848), and California (1850)—an even balance of slave and free states before
the addition of California. Admission of California as a free state came as a
consequence of the Compromise of 1850, a series of bills aimed at keeping
sectional strife under control. It was also a consequence of the California Gold
Rush of 1849, which had led to a rapid increase in the state's population and had
helped to swell the populations of nearby states as well. In partial compensation
for California's admission to the Union as a free state, the South sought and
received passage of a Fugitive Slave law, requiring northern states to participate
in the arrest and return of southern slaves who had escaped to the North. This
law was particularly hated by northerners, some of whom vowed not to obey it.
The Jacksonian Era was thus a dynamic period of American history, marked by
political democratization, westward movement and territorial expansion,
technological innovation, religious revival, social reform, and optimism about the
future. It was also, however, marked by harsh treatment of native Americans,
polarization of political parties, and sectional strife between North and South. By
1850, despite an historic compromise, the central issue of slavery was poised to
plunge the nation into the most devastating war it has ever experienced.