Nationalism and Sectionalism Chapter 10

Economic Nationalism

An unexpected benefit of the War of 1812

Jefferson’s embargo forced Americans to look inward for the production of their finished goods. This led to the first American Industrial Revolution and a surge of economic growth.

The Bank of the United States

The charter for the first Bank of the United States ended in 1811 and was not immediately renewed. Without the financial control the central bank, economic turmoil ensued.

State chartered local banks with no control flooded the channels of commerce with bank notes

Initial economic boom

Runaway inflation

Bursting bubble caused deep recession

Banks stopped exchanging coins for paper money

National government could not float loans or transfer funds across the country

To stabilize the economy, a second bank was chartered, which would last for 20 years.

1816

Bank of the United States (B.U.S.)

Economic Nationalism

A protective tariff

Protect the fledgling American industrial sector from competing British imports, the Tariff of 1816 was enacted.

North, where most of the manufacturing base was located, was for it,

South was against it.

The agrarian economy of the south depended on shipping goods abroad to agents who sold them, purchased needed items, and shipped them back to America.

Southerners were upset because they were forced to pay the import tax.

Internal improvements

War of 1812 revealed several shortcomings of the United States.

Transportation infrastructure.

The first attempt to fix this problem was the construction of the Cumberland, or National, Road.

Canals

Railroads

Economic Nationalism

The American System

Internal improvements

Creation of an industrial infrastructure,

National Banking System

Stabilizing of the American economy after the War of 1812

Required a more active role of the federal government in the lives of the citizens.

The first proponent of the American System was Henry Clay who argued that properity depended on the federal government assuming an active role in shaping the economy.

“Market Revolution”

Economic Nationalism

Clay’s American System

High tariffs to impede the import of European products and protect fledgling American industries

Higher prices for federal lands

Proceeds to be distributed to states to finance internal improvements to facilitate delivery of goods to markets

Strong national bank to regulate the nation’s money supply and ensure sustained economic growth

Economic Nationalism

Opponents of Clay’s American System

Higher prices for federal lands would discourage western migration

Tariffs benefitted industrialists at the expense of farmers and “common folk”.

B.U.S. a potentially tyrannical force, dictating the nations economic future

Centralizing power in the Federal Government

Limiting States’ rights

Limiting individual freedoms

Good Feelings

James Monroe

Relations with Britain

After the War of 1812, the United States never fought another war with Great Britain

close diplomatic ties.

Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817, which ended the naval arms race on the Great Lakes.

Both sides agreed to limit the number of warships in the lakes.

Convention of 1818,

Settled the northern limit of the Louisiana Territory at the 49th parallel

Transcontinental Treaty Boundaries 1819

Good Feelings

The extension of boundaries

1819

Financial Panic

Debate over extension of slavery to new territories

Concerns over Spanish sovereignty over Florida

Seminole Indians and Runaway slaves

1817 Americans burned Seminole settlement in Florida Panhandle; Seminoles responded with raids of their own against white settlers

Secretary of War: John C. Calhoun appointed Andrew Jackson to take command of American troops

Orders: pursue attackers into Spanish territory but do not attack Spanish posts

1818 Jackson ordered troops to cross border and assault the Spanish fort at Saint. Marks, destroying Seminole villages also.

Jackson ordered execution of two British traders accused of inciting the Seminoles to war.

Captured Pensacola and established a provisional American government then Jackson returned to Tennessee

Jackson’s actions strengthened American bargaining position with Spain over Florida purchase

Transcontinental Treaty of 1819

Crises and Compromises

The Panic of 1819

In 1819, Great Britain, still the chief importer of the South’s cotton, turned to its colony of India to obtain cheaper cotton.

To enlarge their loans, state banks issued more bank notes than they could redeem with gold or silver coins.

Extensive fraud and embezzlement in the Baltimore Branch of the B.U.S. by Bank officials

Langdon Cheves: reduced bank salaries, dividends, reduced extension of credit and presented bank notes for redemption.

These actions put pressure on the state banks who put pressure on their debtors, making it more difficult to renew old loans or get new loans.

The Missouri Compromise

After the Revolution, the United States followed an alternating pattern when admitting states into the union: one slave then one free state.

When Missouri requested admittance, there were twenty-two states—eleven free, eleven slave.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had dictated that there were to be no slave states there

Missouri gained statehood under a compromise: no more slave states would be allowed north of the 36⁰ 30’ line.

The Missouri Compromise, 1820

Judicial Nationalism

John Marshall, chief justice

Strengthening the federal government McCulloch v. Maryland (1819).

Did the Federal government have the right to create a bank when this was not specifically mentioned as a power given to Congress in the Constitution.

Marshall ruled that a clause in Article I, section 8 was purposefully left vague to allow Congress to create “necessary and proper” entities for them.

“To make all laws which are necessary and proper into execution of the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof.”

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) , Marshall exerted the right of the nation to regulate state commerce.

Nationalist Diplomacy

The Pacific Northwest

John Quincy Adams to Russia, “the American continents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments.”

Treaty of 1824

The Monroe Doctrine

The American continents are not subject to any further expansion of European colonial power

The political system of European powers is different from that of the United States who will consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of the Western hemisphere as “dangerous to our peace and safety”

U.S. would not interfere with existing European colonies

U.S. will keep out of the internal affairs of European nations and their wars.

Monroe Doctrine could not be unilaterally enforced and depended on naval supremacy of Great Britain. European powers at the time did not acknowledge it.

One-Party Politics

Presidential nominations in 1824

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: with no political party to contend against, the Democratic-Republicans turned on themselves and ran four candidates for the presidency.

No candidate won an electoral majority, and the election was sent to the House of Representatives.

The corrupt bargain

Each state got one vote, regardless of how its citizens voted.

John Quincy Adams won the presidency, though he had lost the popular vote and had come in second to Jackson in the electoral vote.

He nominated his fellow candidate Henry Clay, the speaker of the house, to be his secretary of state.

Because most past presidents had served as secretary of state, Jackson took this as a “corrupt bargain” struck by the two by which Clay would use his influence in the House to secure Adams the presidency and thus would be made heir apparent.

One-Party Politics

John Quincy Adams

Bold programs which would expand power of federal government

Promote internal improvements

Set up a national university

Finance scientific explorations

Build astronomical observatories

Create a department of the interior

Praised the example of “the nations of Europe and of their rulers” which confirmed suspicions that the Adams’s were “closet monarchists”

The election of Andrew Jackson

Jacksonian Democrats

The Sequester is NOT new! Presented an alternative tariff bill with such outrageously high duties on raw materials that the manufacturers in the Mid-Atlantic states would join the South and the Southwest to defeat the tariff allowing Jacksonian supporters in the North could still support the tariff and retain voter loyalty while Jacksonian supporters in the South could take credit for opposing the tariff.

The tariff passed.

Doctrine of Nullification: John C. Calhoun changes sides and opposes a tariff

Jackson elected President in 1828

1828 Presidential Election

Andrew Jackson John Quincy Adams