The Transformation of Politics in Antebellum America (Very Important)

The Transformation of Politics in Antebellum America
Emergence of the Two-Party System
-Democrats: states’ rights, limited govt., universal white male suffrage, southerners, westerners, small farmers, urban workers, immigrants
-Whigs: Favored Clay’s American System (national bank, federal funding of internal improvements, protective tariff), opposed immorality and vice (blamed old immigrants from Germany and Ireland), New Englanders, Mid-Atlantic and upper-Middle-Western states, Protestants of English stock, middle-class urban professionals
Federal Authority and its opponents
-Judicial Federalism: Jackson opposed the Federalist Marshall Court decisions such as Worchester v. Georgia (believed in states’ rights), opposed federal funding of internal improvements (Clay’s Maysville Road), Jackson lived up to Democratic ideals
-The Bank War: “King Andrew” Jackson vetoed the recharter bill to spite Clay/Nicholas Biddle claiming to help the common man against business interests (placed federal money in pet/state banks leading to Panic of 1837 under Martin Van Buren (Ruin), Specie Circular (hoped to stop inflationary trend), Jackson lived up to Democratic ideals, helped him win second term, vetoed more laws than all the previous presidents
-Tariff Controversy: Opposed Calhoun’s nullification theory, placed Union above states’ rights, Jackson didn’t live up to Democratic ideals, Force Bill (gave Jackson authority to send troops into South Carolina but conflict was resolved with the Tariff Compromise of 1833 (Clay)
-States’ rights debates: Webster-Hayne Debates of 1830, fought over the idea of states leaving the Union
-Other: Peggy Eaton Affair (hurt relations with VP John C. Calhoun)
Jacksonian Democracy and its successes
-Universal male suffrage, nomination conventions (replaced King Caucus), popular election of electoral college members, reemergence of two-party system (from the one-party rule under the Era of Good Feelings), Rise of third parties (Anti-Masons), More elected offices, popular campaigning (politics a form of entertainment), Spoils system, rotation of office
Jackson Democracy and its limitations (not part of the common man equation)
-Indian Removal Act, stopped abolition literature from being sent through US mails (upheld slavery), no new rights for women, Jackson often used the presidency against rivals, not ruling by political ideology