Democratic Currents

American System Following the War of 1812, a new nationalism emerged in the United States. Henry Clay's "American System" was a neofederalist program of a national bank, a tariff to promote and protect domestic industry, and congressionally financed internal improvements. Clay, John C. Calhoun, and John Quincy Adams helped fashion this new political agenda, which promised to meet the needs of all sections. Until 1832 Congress was able to pass high tariffs without meeting much opposition, and in 1816 the Second Bank of the United States received a twenty-year charter. Only internal improvements, a critical element of the nationalist program, did not fare well. Although President James Madison approved the building of the National Road, he maintained that the Constitution did not authorize the use of federal funds for local projects. The nationalism embodied in the American System hastened the demise of the Federalist party and ushered in the Era of Good Feelings, but the rise of a new party and indeed a new party system ultimately doomed this broad vision of the scope of the federal government. The victory of Andrew Jackson in the 1828 presidential election marked the emergence of newly articulated principles of laissez-faire, individualism, and sectional autonomy. Clay, Henry (Known as “the Great Compromiser.”) 1777–1852. American politician who pushed the Missouri Compromise through the U.S. House of Representatives (1820) in an effort to reconcile free and slave states. Tocque·ville (tōk'vĭl, tŏk'-, tôk-vēl')

, Alexis Charles Henri Clérel de 1805–1859.

French politician, traveler, and historian. After touring the United States (1831–1832), he wrote Democracy in America (1835), a widely influential study of American institutions.

1824 In the election of 1824, none of the candidates was able to secure a majority of the electoral vote, thereby putting the outcome in the hands of the House of Representatives, which (to the surprise of many) elected John Quincy Adams over rival Andrew Jackson. Henry Clay was the Speaker of the House at the time, and he convinced Congress to elect Adams. Adams then made Clay his Secretary of State. Some people believe that an agreement was made ahead of time between the two, a Corrupt Bargain. U.S. presidential election, 1828

Presidential electoral votes by state. Held on December 2, the U.S. presidential election of 1828 featured a rematch between incumbent President John Quincy Adams and chief rival Andrew Jackson, who was now a candidate under the banner of the new Democratic Party. Unlike the 1824 election, no other major candidates appeared in the race, allowing Jackson to consolidate a power base and easily win an electoral victory over Adams. spoils system n. The postelection practice of rewarding loyal supporters of the winning candidates and party with appointive public offices. Kitchen Cabinet The "Kitchen Cabinet" was a group of unofficial advisers with whom President Andrew Jackson regularly consulted, particularly during his first years in office, 1829 to 1831. During this period, Jackson's official cabinet was riven with factionalism, much of it due to the personal rivalry between the vice president, John C. Calhoun, and the secretary of state, Martin Van Buren. Jackson soon stopped holding cabinet meetings altogether and instead formed his Kitchen Cabinet. The most influential member was Amos Kendall, a newspaper editor from Kentucky for whom Jackson arranged an appointment as fourth auditor of the Treasury; two others were Andrew J. Donelson, the president's secretary, and William B. Lewis, a close associate from his military days. Only two members of the official cabinet joined the informal group: Martin Van Buren and the secretary of war, John H. Eaton. Duff Green, editor of the administration's favored newspaper, United States Telegraph, served in the Kitchen Cabinet at first, but his partiality to Calhoun led to a rift in 1830, whereupon Francis J. Blair, like Kendall a Kentucky journalist, was persuaded to come to Washington and start a new paper, the Washington Globe. Blair then became an important member of the Kitchen Cabinet.

Relations between Jackson and his official cabinet reached a new low in the spring of 1831, when all the members except Van Buren opposed the president and supported their wives in ostracizing Secretary Eaton's new wife, a former barmaid. Eaton and Van Buren chose to resign over the matter, permitting Jackson to request resignations from the rest of the cabinet, most of whom were Calhoun supporters. After the formation of a wholly new cabinet in the summer of 1831, the role of the Kitchen Cabinet was considerably diminished. U.S. presidential election, 1836 remembered for three reasons: 1. It was the last election until 1988 to result in the elevation of an incumbent Vice President to the nation's highest office. 2. It was the only race in which a major political party intentionally ran several presidential candidates. The Whigs ran three different candidates in different regions of the country, hoping that each would be popular enough to defeat Democratic standard-bearer Martin Van Buren in their respective areas. The House of Representatives could then decide between the competing Whig candidates. This strategy failed: Van Buren won a majority of the electoral vote and became President. 3. This election is the first (and to date only) time in which a Vice Presidential election was thrown into the Senate. Tariff of 1828 The Tariff of 1828, also known as the Tariff of Abominations, was a protective tariff passed by the U.S. Congress in 1828. The goal of the tariff was to protect industry in the northern United States from competing European goods by causing the prices of those goods to rise. U.S. presidential election, 1840 Presidential electoral votes by state. Facing bad economic times and a Whig Party unified behind war hero William Henry Harrison, President Martin Van Buren was easily defeated for re-election in 1840 by "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." The U.S. pr Tariff of 1832 The Tariff of 1832 was a protectionist tariff in the United States. Opposition to this tariff and its predecessor, the Tariff of Abominations, caused the Nullification Crisis.

It was repealed by the Compromise Tariff of 1833.

The first force bill, passed in response to South Carolina's ordinance of nullification, empowered President Jackson to use the army and navy, if necessary, to enforce the laws of Congress, specifically the tariff measures to which South Carolina had objected so violently. Calhoun urged that states could nullify federal laws, earning him the nickname "Arch Nullifier," and Jackson threatened to use the army if South Carolina forced the issue (Calhoun's colleague, Senator Henry Clay, helped work out a compromise). In 1832 Calhoun resigned as Jackson's vice president and became a U.S. senator, South Carolina Exposition and Protest The South Carolina Exposition and Protest was written in 1828 by Andrew Jackson's Vice President, John C. Calhoun, during the Nullification Crisis. The document was a protest against the Tariff of 1828. On December 19, 1828, it was presented to the South Carolina State House of Representatives. It was not formally adopted by the legislature, nor did it affect the tariff. Nullification Crisis In the United States, the Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson over the issue of protective tariffs. The issue incited a debate over states' rights that ultimately threatened the primacy of the federal government and the unity of the nation itself. Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was an economic depression, one of the sharpest financial crises in the history of the United States. The Panic was built on a speculative fever. The bubble burst on May 10, 1837 in New York City, when every bank stopped payment in specie (gold and silver coinage). The Panic was followed by a six-year depression, with the failure of banks and record unemployment levels. Charles River Bridge Case, decided in 1837 by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Charles River Bridge Company had been granted (1785) a charter by the state of Massachusetts to operate a toll bridge. The state later authorized (1828) a competing bridge that would eventually be free to the public. The Charles River Bridge Company brought suit against the competing company, claiming that the state charter had given it a monopoly. The court upheld the state's authorization to the other company, holding that since the original charter did not specifically grant a monopoly, the ambiguity in the contract would operate in favor of the public, thus allowing a competing bridge. The holding modified the

Dartmouth College Case, which held that a state could not unilaterally amend a charter. Maysville Road Veto Andrew Jackson vetoes this bill to add federal support to build a large extension of the Cumberland Road or National Road in Kentucky. He argues against federal subsidies for roads when they are limited to individual states; and concedes to states' rights without losing support of those who favor internal improvements. Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&am p;vol=31&page=515) (1832), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that Cherokee Indians were entitled to federal protection from the actions of state governments. Hudson River school n. A group of American landscape painters active from about 1825 to 1875 whose works, influenced by European Romanticism, depict the beauty and grandeur of areas such as the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains, and Niagara Falls. Mann (măn)

, Horace 1796–1859.

American educator who as the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education (1837–1848) introduced reforms and regulations that greatly influenced American public education. Lovejoy, Elijah Parish, 1802–37, American abolitionist, b. Albion, Maine, grad. Waterville (now Colby) College, 1826, and later studied theology at Princeton. In 1833 he became editor of the Observer, a Presbyterian weekly in St. Louis. His antislavery views (he advocated gradual emancipation) became extremely unpopular, and in 1836 he moved to Alton, Ill. There he advocated immediate abolition in his Alton Observer. Mobs destroyed three of his presses, and on Nov. 7, 1837, while guarding another new press, he was killed. Lovejoy's martyrdom helped advance the cause of the abolitionists. Dix (dĭks) , Dorothea Lynde 1802–1887. Dix american philanthropist, reformer, and educator who was a pioneer in the movement for specialized treatment of the mentally ill. American Colonization Society, organized Dec., 1816–Jan., 1817, at Washington, D.C., to transport free blacks from the United States and settle them in Africa.