In the early 19th century, different regions in the United States developed economically in different ways; the Northeast began to industrialize, while the South and the West continued in agriculture.
The Industrial Revolution first started in New England, where the economy was heavily reliant on shipping and foreign trade. Soon enough farmers in the North improved their agriculture with the help of manufacturing, as factories produced materials items which were sold in urban markets. Meanwhile, the South focused more on agricultural power. The invention of the cotton gin made it possible to prodiuce cotton more efficiently.
These economic differences brought political tensions between different sects of the nation.
In 1828, President Andrew Jackson was elected to office. Putting these sectional tensions aside, he embraced the spirit of territorial expansion, and started the Age of Jackson. Jackson’s ideal political power for all classes is called Jacksonian democracy. Under this philosophy, he wanted to give common people the opportunity to participate in government. He accomplished this through the spoils system, in which new administration hire their own supporters to replace the supporters of the previous administration. By this method, he gave huge numbers of jobs to friends and political allies.
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, forcing Native Americans to move west. While most Native American tribes agreed to the act, the Cherokee nation refused. The Supreme Court ruled for them to leave, as the Cherokee were forced to march west in fall 1838, also known as the Trail of Tears.
In 1828, the South’s economy relied heavily on cotton exports. The high tariff, known as the Tariff of 1816, caused fewer British exports, forcing the South to buy expensive manufactured goods from the North. This caused the North to become rich at the expense of the South.
Vice president John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, developed a theory of nullification in attempt to free the South from the tariffs. He reasoned that the 13 sovereign states which wrote the Constitution could declare if offending laws were uncooperative with its borders. In 1832, this issue was tested when Congress raised tariffs again. South Carolinians declared the tariffs of 1828 unfair, and threatened to secede from the union if officials tried to collect duties.
Jackson urged the Congress to pass the Force buill to allow the federal government to use the military if state authorities resisted to pay proper duties. Henry Clay of South Carolina compromised, proposing a tariff bill that would gradually lower duties over the course of 10 years. This temporarily eased tensions between the states’ rights and the federal authority.
Upon his reelection in 1832, Jackson tried to decrease federal power when it came to the Second Bank of the United States, and withdrew all government deposits, storing them in certain state banks called “pet banks.” Although Jackson won the Bank War, his actions angered many people, leading to the creation of the Whig Party, formed by his opponents.
Jackson refused to run for a third term in 1836, and thus his opponent Van Buren of the Whig Party easily won the election. Along with presidency, he also inherited the consequences of the bank war. By May 1837, many banks stopped accepting paper currency. Bank closings and the collapse of the credit card system cost many people their savings, and put a third of the population out of work.
In 1840, William Henry Harrison took office, for people blamed the economic slump on Van Buren. As Harrison died a month after taking office, Vice President John Tyler took power, and halted Whig reforms.
Since the Jefferson Era up to the Age of Jackson, the styles of politics in America had changed dramatically. While his legacy is mainly known for his support of Native American removal, his presidential influence changed how politics were run. Political speeches were more for entertainment, which allowed more Americans to become involved with the political process. This was to continue as expansion moved further west into places like Texas and California.
26 comments:
its good, great facts, but you should make it less texty, cause it is really long. remember this is a blog, list the main/key points
Good job, covering the subject in so much detail, but it should have been more of a summary. An a is 10 sentences, this is much more then ten. A picture would have helped to, but very good information.
Lots of solid information, very well formatted. Paragraphs are nice and short, and even though the posting is long, the paragraphs give the reader a nice amount of breaks and seperation.
Good job.
I think you did an awesome job going into such detail. Maybe putting a picture in would have been good so it wouldn't be as dense.
This is filled with lots of good information, but next time you might want to summarize a little more so it isn't as long.
I'm impressed by the amount of information you two put in there. I like how you breaks them into small paragraphs that are easier to read. It would be better if you can overlook some details and give a more succinct summery.
It was wonderfully written, but as everybody else said, it was a little bit long
You did an excellent job covering some of the important aspects of the Jackson administration. I especially like how you explained the various causes of the tensions of the time, and how they affected politics. While the post is far too long for a blog, it's very readable. Nice work.
This is a very detailed and nicely organized posting. Sentences flow well and nice transitions between paragraphs. But the blog should be shorter because superfluous details in a summary may cause the blog to be less effective comparing to blogs that have some details but are still able to cover the important aspects of the topic.
You guys did a Nice job. Next time make it a little shorter, so it can be easy to understand.
this is a very good blog that is packed full of information. i think you could make it a little shorter. good job.
This is very detailed and loaded with information. It could be a bit more brief and could take out some excess information. It was very easy to understand, too.
This is nicely detailed summary, but it make me feel if I were reading a text book... A well formatted posting.
good job Jason, i thought your blog was very in depth and taught me a lot of interesting information. Overall it was nicely done, but a little on the longer side.
Although well formatted and detailed post, it feels a bit long.
Very informative, although a bit too timelineish and in need of some transition phrases.
You wrote in a very informative way, but I think it would be better if you paraphrased little bit.
Very detailed. But it's a little bit long. If you summarized more, it would be better.
While it was a little lengthy, it was very well written. next time, paraphrase or cut some information out of the post
I really like how you included background information about what was going on before Jackson was elected. I think you could have scaled down the amount you put into the blog, but other than that I thought it read very well.
As Mrs. Frykman says, conciseness is an art. Being able to sort out the important facts and the extra fluff is very helpful in writing a summary about a big topic.
I like how you spaced it out to make it easier to read though.
this is organized and well worded.
You could have shortened it to make it more of a summary. But you did a very good job.
This has a lot of good information, but it could be shorter and paraphrased more. A picture would be nice as well.
great job on pointing out the dates of when all the major events happened. And way to improves people knowledge on the industrial revolution. but what i would do better next time add a little picture keep the reader in the blog
It is a very detailed essay but I think there are ways to shorten up. Great job though over all =].
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