* Bolded=commentary

Alisha D., JiMin H., Casey F., Danielle R., Megan T., & Dina Z.

Written:  February - March, 2007

Chapter 9 Summary

 

Society and Politics in the Early Republic

Introduction

• During the early 1800’s, people  traveled throughout the Untied States, seeking opportunities and a better life for themselves and families, transferring farming from the Atlantic Coast to the trans-Appalachian interior.

            ~ James and Mary Harrod moved from Virginia to Kentucky with their 5 children.

• However, African and Native Americans did not benefit as much as others since they were harshly constrained.

•A religious wave traveled through American, referred to as the Second Great Awakening, which preached universal salvation and equality of all believers of God.

* Although it took at lot of work over many years to re-locate a farm, planters understood that the end result would bring greater profit in the future, since the main focus was on individual profit.

                                                                                                                                                   

 

Restoring American Liberty

• The Jeffersonian took office in March of 1801 and set a goal of rescuing the national government and redirecting politics.

The Jeffersonian Take Control

• In November of 1800, the United States capitol was relocated to the District of Columbia where a Frenchman Pierre L’Enfant designed a plan for the capital with the help of an American black man named Benjamin Banneker.

            ~ District of Columbia at this time was no more than a swamp land.

• Jefferson had a simple inauguration on March 4 where he was dressed as a typical citizen, in order to strip the government of the Federalists embellishment.

~During his inaugural speech, Jefferson mentioned that he would help the administration to “equal and exact justice to all” and “freedom of person under the protection of habeas corpus.”

            * In his inaugural speech, Jefferson stomped on the Federalists’ policies and mentioned the dark period of the 1790s under Federalists rule. He continued to guide Americans into a Jeffersonian vision, criticizing Federalists views.

                                                                                                                                                          

 

Politics and the Federal Courts

• During the last months of John Adam’s president term, Adams passed a new Judiciary law raising the number of circuit courts and filling the positions with Federalists in order to still have some power over the rule of the nation.

•The Jeffersonians took action and tried to eliminate the Federalists powers; however, the Constitution states that Judiciary judges serve for life unless committing “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

            ~House of Representatives voted to impeach District Judge John Pickering of New Hampshire because of “dangerous opinions” that will hurt the country.

• After the failed attempt by the Jeffersonians to impeach Samuel Chase and sensing the danger of the constitutional crisis, the Jeffersonians stepped back and allowed time to cleanse the Federal Courts.

            ~ Tried to impeach Chase with “intemperate and inflammatory political harangues.”

• Supreme Court created the constitutional principle of judicial review, which states that the judging the constitutionality of congressional law and executive behavior was the court’s job.

            ~Marbury v. Madison was an example of how the judiciary responsibility can be vague and undefined.

            ~ McCulloch v. Maryland was an issue that dealt with the state’s power to tax a nationally chartered bank.

            * Read over again and analyze Marbury vs. Madison and McCulloch vs. Maryland and how they helped establish fundamental doctrines of the Constitution.

                                                                                                                                                          

 

Dismantling the Federalists War Program

• Since the Federalists’ program of war was a threat to public liberty, Jefferson decided to take it apart by ending the Sedition Act , dealing with the Alien Act by reducing the requirement for citizenship from 14 to 5 years, and keeping the excise tax only until 1802. 

• Jefferson lowered the federal government’s size, and explained to his son-in-law that he felt states should have more power since they could identify the people’s needs easier.

            *This increased the government official to citizen ratio to 1:1,914 compared to 1: 62 that we presently have today.

• Also, he explained that federal government simply delivered mail, dealt with the Indians, and administers the public domain. Jefferson also reduced the national debt from $83 to $57 million.

            ~ He believed the state’s had a closer, unified relationship with its citizens and their wants and needs.

            * Jefferson was not a strict, stern president as others had been and abided by a loose, logical set of rules. He helped the country in many ways, although by reducing the size of the civilian employees increased the ratio between public officials to citizens.

                                                                                                                                                         

 

Building an Agrarian Nation

• Jefferson applied his own vies on the government, mixing the diverse ideas of the conflicting groups which included the south, northern artisans, western farmers, and northern intellectuals.

            * This was a difficult situation to be in, since a fraction of the people supporting Jefferson depended on slaves and the other part did not. However, this group kept supporting Jefferson’s policies with three presidential candidates; Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.

                                                                                                                                                        

 

The Jeffersonian Vision

• Jefferson’s vision could only survive under social equality; therefore, the vision centered on the yeoman farmer, which is independent, self-reliant, and filled with concern for the public good.

• However, industry brought social inequality and the only solution was to expand in order for the yeoman farmer to obtain more land.

• Thomas Malthus, an English clergyman and political economist, explained how Europeans and Americans were similar in the growing population and warmed Jefferson about the famine to come in the future; the nation looked to the future and escaping the problems.

            ~ Jefferson took Malthus’ warning, but Europe was different than American, since American has a large amount of fertile land.

            * By surpassing many of the hard times and woes of expanding the borders of America, it would show the country’s exceptionalism and perseverance.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

The Windfall Louisiana Purchase  

• In 1803, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to purchase the Louisiana Territory from the French.

• The purchase was priced at $15 million; it was prompted by the France’s desire to concentrate on conflict in Europe and the fear that American settlers would soon seep into their land.

            ~The purchase was of 830,000 square miles, including access to the Mississippi River as well as the Louisiana Territory. 

* The cost of the territory today would be over 204 million dollars, still a good price for the amount of land. (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi)

• Although the Federalists feared that the new states would be claimed as Jeffersonian, but the national expansion continued into the Pacific Northwest.                   

*How quickly did citizens enter the new land of New Orleans? Were they tentative to become part of the new area or were they quick on their feet to join in?

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Opening the Trans-Mississippi West

• In order to open up the west for settlement, Jefferson sent Secretary Meriwether Lewis and army officer William Clark to explore, make acquaintance with the Native Americans, begin trading fur, and retrieve scientific information about the land.

• Later, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike explored the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, followed by the government’s decision to establish military posts from Fort Snelling to Fort Smith.

•Jefferson continued with his plan for an agrarian democracy by creating the Land Act of 1801, preemption, etc. which all contributed to the Panic of 1819. 

*Why was Sacagawea honored for her efforts to help Lewis and Clark? Was she the only Native American to help the two Americans? How did she trust them and know that their intensions were good?

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The Northeast

• Family farms dominated the northeast regions, with cultivation methods based on specific location of farms.

• Farmers along the Hudson River and in SE Pennsylvania were known to produce surplus which they later exchanged for other products.

• Farms were rather small due to the habit of farm division through the generations to serve offspring.

• Growing populations in the cities manufactured at a high rate, in result there was a skyrocket in demand for lumber, damaging the environment.

*Were there any efforts to conserve the trees or preserve the environment during this demand for lumber? 

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Recovering the Past: Maps

• On the Lewis and Clark expeditions, extensive journals were kept to be later used to construct large, detailed, composite maps of entire regions.

• This method of mapmaking was highly popular and quite difficult, considering the current availability of technology to aid modern mapmakers.

*These maps must not have been very accurate, considering that these map makers had no aerial view or other tools we use today.

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 The Urban Northeast

• Most of the flourishing urban areas were in the Northeast, but also came with growing health and safety problems.

• Large-scale manufacturing caused changes in the nation’s economics, as the urban centers widened the gap between the rich and poor classes.

~This new trend also brought out a middle class of artisans, shopkeepers, and professional men.

*If the Urban centers were central spots for disease, then why did citizens continue to swarm these areas?

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The South

 • Southern agriculture was disheveled, prices fell, tobacco industry was destroyed, and because of the loss of slaves, there was a very poor economy.

• Southern planters experimented with what and other grains in an effort to increase falling fortunes, and thus created cotton.

• Eli Whitney designed the "cotton gin", which eliminated the problem of short-staple cotton and its seeds.

            * Life was very difficult in the South after the Revolution. The agriculture was destroyed, directly impacting the economy. In attempts to save the Southern state, farmers created cotton. After this invention was publicized, cotton became 30% of the nation's agricultural exports. Due to this new resource, the Southern economy soon recovered.

                                                                                                                                                    

 

Trans-Appalachia

• The Trans-Appalachia region became the third region of settlement in the beginning of the nineteenth century.

• Settlers were drawn by the promotions of fortune in the sale of western land.

• New settlers established churches, schools, and even colleges in the new area.

 *Before the new settlement was developed, less than 100,000 people lived past the Appalachians, but by 1810, the number of inhabitants was nearly a million. Realizing the wealth behind the value of the land, land companies bought vast areas. In order to clear the forest areas for farming, farmers destroyed the forest land by burning the trees down.

                                                                                                                                                             

 

Indian-White Relations in the Early Republic

• As the white expansion increased, the tribal groups were angered and began to devised plans of resistance.

• Communication and mixing of whites and American Indians drastically decreased by 1830.

• The federal government established a set of Indian policies, which seemingly speeded the transfer of Indian land to the white settlers.

 *In the 1790s, Native American tribes still controlled vast areas of the trans-Appalachian area. The Shawnees, Delaware, and Miami were allied north of the Ohio River. But south of the Ohio River, the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole all lived together. Indians of the Cherokee tribe were more peaceful, but the Shawnee and the Creek tribes were more violent.

                                                                                                                                                          

 

The Initial Goals of Indian Policy

• Henry Knox, the first secretary of war, stated that the Indian's had the right to their land, unless they give it up by free consent.

• Native American leaders frequently traded their land for trade goods, yearly annuity payments, and assurance that no more demands would be presented.

• Trade goods often transmitted diseases such as measles and small pox to the Indian tribes.

            *Even though Henry Knox declared that the Indian's had the right to the land, the white settlers continued to acquire their land. The Native Americans and whites benefited in the fur trade. The Native American's traded it for blankets, guns, rum, and ironware of high value. The Indians soon became dependent on the traded items, and began over-trapping their hunting grounds, forcing competition between fellow tribes.

                                                                                                                                                          

 

Patterns of Armed Resistance: The Shawnee and the Creek

• The prophet named Handsome Lake preached of a religion with combinations of Indian and white beliefs.

• Pushing the boundaries of settlement, the whites and the Native Americans, especially the Cherokees, began an escalade of violence.

• In order to increase the resistance, the Cherokees brought their tribe's scattered villages and formed a common government for the sake of unity.

•Both the Shawnee, in the Northwest, and the Creek, of the Southwest, resisted white accommodation with violence, fighting against Americans in bloody wars but were ultimately defeated by their enemies

• Due to their strategy of peaceful accommodations, the tribal government became stronger and the identity of the Cherokee was more secure.

            *Becoming greedy in the sense of land ownership, the white settlers demanded more Indian land. Due to their aggressiveness, the Cherokee fought back to protect their land. In order to become more united in their resistance, the Cherokee formed the Cherokee National Council. In this council's bylaws, any transfer of land to white ownership without the consent of the appropriate tribal authorities by any member became punishable by death.

                                                                                                                                                        

 

Perfecting a Democratic Society

•Social equality was, inspired by Revolutionary Ideals and aided by the Second Great Awakening, motivated some Americans to change the increasing poor class’s situation with the “charitable revolution.”

•Women, who were still thought of as extremely inferior to men, began to gain more independence with more divorces and better education.

            *The ideal of social equality fueled Americans’ efforts for change, although most of their attempts were unsuccessful.  The Second Great Awakening enthused people of all classes and races to find salvation; it also gave many a sense of social belonging.  The “charitable revolution,” caused by the increase in the poor population, constructed some aid groups for the poor but only helped the “worthy” victims of poverty.  People also built orphanages, hospitals, and asylums for the needy. More independent women tried to secure equal rights with men, but lost most of their higher positions in the church because of their “inferiority” to men even with the recent Awakening.

                                                                                                                                                             

 

The American People Gather at Agricultural Fairs

•Elkanah Watson formed the Berkshire Agriculture Society in 1810 and began agricultural fairs to improve farming practices in his town by competition and the sharing of beneficial ideas.

•These fairs provided entertainment for men, women, and children of all ages, evolving into annual social gatherings that huge amounts of people attended.

•The agricultural fairs, started in Massachusetts, spread as far as Maine, Virginia, and Illinois and eventually evolved into the famous County Fairs famous in the United States.

*The purpose of the agricultural fair was not only entertainment and friendly competition but also to improve the farms of Watson’s area.  John Adams and other leaders also formed groups, such as the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, to better the farms across the country for economic benefits, but the Berkshire group was the first to involve common citizens and evoked the most popular following.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Race, Slavery, and the Limits of Reform

•North: gradual slavery abolition subdued many principles; South: spread of cotton increased value of slave labor

 ~Slave rebellions stimulated panic among white Americans.

*This caused the declination of antislavery sentiment and private manumission.

•Strong and growing black communities appeared in port cities. As their African American population increased, they created organizations independent of white control and useful to the black community.

*Out of all the institutions created, black churches were the ones that quickly emerged as the fundamental cornerstones of the black community and would retain this position throughout history.

•Blacks were provided with education, secure sites, and places for marriage, birth announcements, funerals, and anniversaries.

*By the 1830’s, a cultural and institutional life had been established in their urban settlements, but white hostility still lingered. Race continued to separate Americans from each other.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Jeffersonian Principles

•Foreign policy was based on the doctrine of no entangling alliances with Europe.

*Jeffersonians believed that England was still the principal enemy and that France was a suspect. Although some were hopeful for French liberty after their revolution, most were intimidated by Napoleon.

•Jeffersonians emphasized the importance of overseas commerce to the security and prosperity of the agrarian nation.

*This would provide markets for America’s agricultural produce and receive manufactured goods in return. They hoped to keep manufacturing in Europe because they feared concentrations of wealth and dependent working classes from domestic manufacturing.

•They sought to maintain peace because they feared war’s effects on democratic liberty: killing people, destroying property, inflaming politics, stifling free speech, increasing public debt, and expanding governmental power.

*They were aware of the dangers lurking the Atlantic. Therefore, Jefferson dispatched naval vessels to the Mediterranean to defend American commerce against the Barbary States. This would lead to the War of 1812 and illustrate how eagerly they sought to avoid conflict.

                                                                                                                                                            

 

Struggling for Neutral Rights

•When the European war resumed in 1803, Britain and France seized American shipping once again. Britain continued to refuse negotiation on issues of impressment, occupation of the Great Lakes fur-trading posts, and reopening the West Indian trade.

*This increased tension between the two nations and finally reached the breaking point in June 1807.

•Jefferson decided to withdraw American ships from the Atlantic, and Congress passed the Embargo Act in 1807.

*Jefferson feared the approach of war, realizing that the U.S. was not prepared to confront Britain. However, the embargo had very little effect; communities openly violated it, and it ultimately resulted in guerilla warfare.

•Election of 1808: James Madison wins presidency.

*Federalists made gains in Congress and recaptured state legislatures. Congress tried more limited trade restrictions, but their failures led to the verge of war.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

The War of 1812

•Election of 1810: brought the War Hawks to Congress.

*They were impatient with the administration’s unrefined policy and wanted tougher measures, resenting British arrogance and America’s continuing humiliation.

•President Madison declared war in response to growing pressure.

*The war finally secured the nation from outside interference.

•Following 1815, the nation focused on internal development, occupying the continent, building the economy, and reforming American society.

 

                                                                                                                                                          

 

The United States and the Americas

•Americans supported Latin American colonies when they sought independence from Portugal and Spain (1808); Congress recognized the new Latin American republics and created relations with seven Latin American nations.

*Americans sided with Latin America because important leaders, like Símon Bolívar) flattered the U.S. and held the country up as a model; America also liked the idea of European colonies becoming weaker.

•Quadruple Alliance (France, Prussia, Russia, and Austria) planned on helping Spain regain American land; therefore, Britain attempted to make an alliance with America, but America did not trust them.

•As a result, John Quincy Adams came up with the idea of the Monroe Doctrine: American colonies closed to European colonization, separate political systems for America and Europe, and Americans shouldn’t get involved in European affairs.

*Monroe Doctrine did not have an effect on America at the time, but is very influential in American history

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Politics in Transition

•For two decades, Jeffersonian Republicans dominated the presidency and Congress while the Federalists collapsed.

•A new democratic system took the place of old, gentry-based politics.

                                                                                                                                                             

 

Division among the Jeffersonians

• (March 1816) President Madison signed a bill to create the second bank of the United States.

*What benefits did a second bank provide?

•The Congress (urged by Madison) passed the first protective tariff on important woolen and cotton goods, iron, hats, and sugar.

•Representatives John Calhoun and Henry Clay created an internal improvements bill (to construct a federally subsidized network of canals and roads), but Madison vetoed the bill because a constitutional amendment was necessary.

                                                                                                                                                         

 

The Specter of Sectionalism

•Senator Rufus King wanted Missouri to prohibit slavery before becoming part of the Union; this proposal created a big debate over Congress’s ability to stop the spread of slavery.

*Although the issue of slavery was under wraps, it became a problem again because the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (think back to chapter 7) did not include this new territory.

•Southerners wanted the trans-Mississippi West to remain open to their slavery, and Northern states wanted the land to be open to free labor (no slavery).

•Missouri ended up as a slave state, Maine was a free state, and the area west from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains was divided in half and split between the two.

                                                                                                                                                            

 

Collapse of the Federalist-Jeffersonian Party System

•When John Quincy Adams was elected (1824), the Federalist-Jeffersonian system collapsed completely.

•The Jacksonians’ charged Adams with a “corrupt bargain”, and different sections of the Jeffersonians were against each other.

                                                                                                                                                             

 

A New Style of Politics

•Many more white men were voting because a lot of states took out the property-holding restrictions on voting.

*Since more people were voting, it would make it harder for politicians to alter their results or use other forms of corruption in the election process.

• (1820s) Politicians began to acquire votes through party conventions, campaigning, and registration drives.

                                                                                                                                                            

 

Timeline (page 315)

•This timeline sums up major events or milestones from 1789-1827.

*This timeline can be used as an efficient studying tool because it covers the general and major ideas, but it is important to read the text for elaborations and full understanding of these important topics.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Important Places

• New York City- a place where many people headed to seek a new, better life, especially African Americans

• Trans-Appalachian West- a place where farmers migrated to in order to seek new, fertile land; especially Virginians in order to escape the slave society and ignorant planters

• Louisiana Territory- trans-Mississippi region that American bought from the France in 1803, including New Orleans and East Florida.

•Trans-Appalachian Region- region west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes until the Gulf of Mexico formed in the nineteenth century

•Santo Domingo- Haitian slave rebellion

•Richmond, Virginia- American slave rebellion

•Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore- port cities of more than 30,000 free African Americans

•Barbary States- Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, Tunis

•Mediterranean Sea

•Atlantic Ocean

•Gulf Coast

•New territory west of the Mississippi River- new land that was not involved in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (raised the question: Could slavery be allowed there or not?

 

Important Identifications

• Mary and James Harrod- an example of a family migrating from their Virginian home land to Kentucky seeking more opportunities.

•  Ben Thompson and Phyllis Sherman- an example of two African Americans former slaves who move to New York City in order to seek more opportunities

• Pierre L’Enfant- the Frenchman who developed the capital in the District of Columbia

• Benjamin Banneker- the black mathematician and surveyor who helped L’Enfant develop the capital.

• Senator John Breckenridge- introduced a bill to repeal he Federalists Judiciary Act

• Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase- Jeffersonians failed to impeach him on accounts of “intemperate and inflammatory political harangues.”

• Supreme Court Justice John Pickering- impeached by the House of Representatives on accounts of “dangerous opinions” that could harm the country

• Marbury vs. Madison (1803) - brought attention to the government in establishing Judiciary Branch’s responsibilities

• McCulloch vs. Maryland- brought attention that Maryland had been taxing the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank without the power

• James Monroe-Jefferson’s associate that purchased the Louisiana territory from France, including New Orleans, for $15 million during January of 1803.

• Talleyrand- the French foreign minister that sold the entire Louisiana territory, except West Florida, to America

• Thomas Malthus- an English clergyman and political economist who called for the expansions of America’s land base

• Meriwether Lewis- Jefferson’s personal secretary sent to explore the Far Northwest

• William Clark- young army officer sent to explore the Far Northwest

• Sacajawea- Shoshoni tribe woman who aided Lewis and Clark on their explorations

• Lieutenant Zebulon Pike- explored sources of the Mississippi, Rocky Mountains

• Gabriel Prosser- intellectual slave who devised a plan to arm 1,000 slaves for an assault on Richmond, VA and later hanged for his act of conspiracy.

• Congressman Peter Early- “A large majority of the people of the southern states do not consider slavery as a crime.”

• American Colonization Society- founded in1816, believed supported private manumission and the relocation of freed blacks to colonies in Africa.

• Monroe Doctrine of 1823

• Non-Importation Act- prohibited importation of goods that could be produced domestically or acquired elsewhere

• Berlin Decree- forbade all commerce and communication with the British Isles

• Leopard- British warship

• Chesapeake- American frigate

• James Madison- became Federalist president in 1808

• Embargo Act of 1807- forbade all American vessels from sailing for foreign ports

• War Hawks- Henry Clay, Richard Johnson, John Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Felix Grundy, Peter Porter

• Federal-Republican- local Federalist newspaper

• Commander Oliver Hazard Perry- defeated British fleet on Lake Erie in 1813

• Andrew Jackson- defeated British force in 1815 at New Orleans

• Lord Castlereagh- Britain’s Foreign Secretary who offered to negotiate peace

• John Quincy Adams- Secretary of State who devised the Monroe Doctrine

• John Randolph- Congressman of Virginia who spoke in opposition to the bank bill in 1816

• Rufus King- New York Senator who was against slavery in Mississippi 

Vocabulary

• Lame Duck- an elected official who has lost political power but remians in office until new elector is present

• Circuit Courts- courts that traveled to different locations of a specific region, interpreting the law and Constitution

• Surplus- (farmers) sold only what was left over from their family’s needs

•Privies- an outdoor toilet; an outhouse

• Exceptionalism- the notion that America could escape any problems that Europe had once endured by expanding

•Cherokee - Native American tribe located in the region south of the Ohio River.

•Shawnee - Native American tribe located in the region north of the Ohio River.

•Cherokee National Council - Group formed by the Cherokee Indians in order to unite all tribe members in hopes of uniting in the resistance.

 •Embargo- an order of a government prohibiting the movement of merchant ships into or out of its ports.

•Blockade- the isolating, closing off, or surrounding of a place, as a port, harbor, or city, by hostile ships or troops to prevent entrance or exit.

•Incendiary- a person who stirs up strife, sedition, etc.; an agitator.

•Consulate- a government by consuls, as in France from 1799 to 1804.

•Tariffs- set of duties, or taxes, on imported goods