Term
| How did the relationship between the government and the people change during this time? |
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Definition
| The federal government grew more accountable to the people it represented. "Popular sovereignty" meant that men of modest backgrounds could attain new social status, while cultural expression reflected this decline in deference. More public officials now had to seek popular election, but public opinion divided over the role of government in the economy. |
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Term
| What political conflicts did Jackson face and how did he resolve them? |
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Definition
| Jackson resolved political conflicts with iron-fisted authority. During the Peggy Eaton affair, he sacked his entire cabinet, and he handled the Indian dilemma by evicting Native Americans from their homeland. During the nullification crisis, he threatened South Carolina with militia force. |
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Term
| What were the arguments for and against the Bank of the United States? |
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Definition
| Nicholas Biddle believed that the Bank of the US was essential to American economic stability. Jackson believed the federal bank to be unconstitutional and saw it as a personal enemy and monster corporation. Bank proponents believed that Jackson's "Bank War" exceeded his constitutional authority, and the Whig party emerged in opposition to his policies. |
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Term
| What was the two-party system, and how were the parties different? |
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Definition
| The second-party system was the rivalry between Whigs and Democrats. The WHigs included industrialists, merchants, and farmers who favored stimulus to commerce. Democrats included smaller farmers, wage workers, and declining gentry, individuals the new market economy had left behind. The division also marked cultural difference in religion, ethnicity, and lifestyle. |
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Term
| What affect did the expansion of suffrage have on American politics? |
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Definition
Almost all white males now had the right to vote, and modern political parties arose appealing to a mass electorate.
• The proportion of public officials who were elected rather than appointed also increased.
• Changes in the method of nominating an electing a president fostered the growth of a national two-party system.
• National parties existed primarily to engage in contest for the presidency. |
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Term
| What was Martin Van Buren's stand on political parties? |
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Definition
| o Martin Van Buren regarded a permanent two-party system as essential to democratic government, because parties restricted the temptation to abuse power. |
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Term
| What did Jackson believe about "money power"? What did his opponents believe? |
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Definition
| • Jacksonians believed that “the money power’ endangered the survival of republicanism; their opponents feared that populist politicians like Jackson, “rabble-rousers”, would gull the electorate into ratifying tyrannical actions contrary to the nation’s true interests. |
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Term
| Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi drew up legislation to deal with the Native Americas, overstepping the boundaries of states' power. Where did Jackson stand on this? |
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Definition
| Jackson endorsed state actions and even advocated a new and more coercive removal policy, which led to the speedy and thorough removal of all eastern Indians to designated areas beyond the Missy. → the Indian Removal Act of 1830 |
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Term
| Why were southerners so against the newly established tariffs? |
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Definition
| • Tariffs increased the prices that southern agriculturists paid for manufactured goods and threatened to undermine their foreign markets by inciting other countries to erect their own protective tariffs hurt the staple-producing and exporting South. They believed the tariff benefitted the northerners at the cost of the South's economy. |
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Term
| The Tariff of Abominations led to what action from South Carolina? |
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Definition
| South Carolina legislature declared the new duties unconstitutional and endorsed a lengthy affirmation of nullification, or an individual state’s right to set aside federal laws. --> Jackson believed this undermined the Union and threatened to breakup the republic. |
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Term
| South Carolina threatened to secede, what did this spur? |
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Definition
| • Jackson denounced nullification as treasonous, and asked Congress for authority to use the army to enforce the tariff.o * The Force Bill, which gave the president the military powers he sought – and the compromise tariff of 1833 . |
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Term
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Definition
| • Biddle sought recharter by Congress in 1832, but Jackson vetoed the bill and said that the Bank was unconstitutional, he argued that it violated the fundamental rights of the people in a democratic society. --> led to the creation of "pet banks". |
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Term
| What were the differences between the Whigs and the Democrats? |
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Definition
Whigs:
• Whigs stood for “positive liberal state” → which meant government had the right and duty to subsidize or protect enterprises that could contribute to general prosperity and economic growth.
- Whigs want a tariff protection, favored internal improvements to stimulate commerce, and wanted to adopt a market economy.
- Evangelic Protestant church was likely to be a Whig.
- Whigs stood for a loose construction of the Constitution and federal support for business and economic development.
Democrats:
- Democrats appealed mainly to smaller farmers, workers, declining gentry, and emerging entrepreneurs.
- Democrats normally advocated a “negative liberal state” in which government kept its hands off the economy.
- Person who attended ritualized services or did not attend church at all was most likely a Democrat.
- Democrats defended strict construction, states’ rights, and laissez-faire. |
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