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Democracy
1824-1840
Chapter 11
During the winter of 1826-1827, more than 800 Philadelphians were jailed
in a debtors' prison as a consequence of not having paid off their loans.[2]
One anonymous prisoner working from his prison cell wrote an open letter,
"To the Mechanics and Working-Men of the Fifth Ward, and those friendly
to their Interests," describing the difficult work conditions suffered by
working-class Philadelphians. The letter inspired a few outspoken writers
to publish a widely circulated article demanding the workday be cut from
twelve hours to ten hours. In June 1827, carpenters in Philadelphia struck
for a 10-hour workday, agreeing to no reduction in wages. According to
ExplorePAhistory.com:
"When [the carpenters] stopped working, housing and business
construction nearly halted. By August, bricklayers, painters, typographers,
glaziers, and craftsmen in other trades had walked off their jobs or
threatened to do so."[2]
By October, the protesters had established the Mechanics' Union of Trade
Associations, the first trade union to cross craft lines
The Working Men's Parties (whose members were known as "the Workies") were the
first labor-oriented political organizations in the United States. The first Working
Men's Party was founded in Philadelphia in 1828 by William Heighton. Similar parties
were also established in New York City and Boston. Additionally, party member
George Henry Evans established the Working Mans Advocate, the first labor
newspaper, in 1829.[1]
The political platforms of the Working Men's Parties included such planks as statesupported public education, universal male suffrage, protection from debtor
imprisonment, compulsory service in the militia, and shorter working hours. One of its
most eloquent proponents was Samuel Whitcomb jr., who wrote speeches and
lobbied behind the public political scenarios to promote public education.[2] The
Workingmen's Party attacked both the Whigs and the Democrats for their lack of
interest in labor, and they achieved sizable votes in municipal elections.[3]
Despite some local electoral successes, the Workingmen's Parties effectively died
out in the early 1830s. Likely causes for this decline and disappearance include lack
of experience with political organization, factional disputes over doctrine and
leadership, and incursions by the increasingly pro-labor Democratic Party
The New
Democratic
Politics in North
America
Inexpensive
Newspapers
gave the
common man
more insight
Struggles over
Popular Rights:
Mexico, the
Caribbean, Canada
In 1821 Colonel
Agustin de
Iturbiee declared
Mexico a
Constitutional
Monarchy
Expansion and
Limits of Suffrage
The extension of
suffrage to property
less farm workers and
members of the
laboring poor in the
nations cities left
European observers
wondering mob rule
possibly could
succeed.
The Election
of 1824
John Q Adams
Presidency
Expansion of Democracy
The Bucktails may refer to one of two organizations that were particularly
characterized and identified by the wearing of the tail of a buck (male deer)
in their hat.
1) The Bucktails (18181826) were the faction of the DemocraticRepublican Party in New York State opposed to the canal policy of
Governor DeWitt Clinton. It was influenced by the Tammany Society. The
name derives from a Tammany insignia, a deer's tail worn in the hat. The
name was in use as early as 1791 when a bucktail worn on the headgear
was adopted as the "official badge" of the Tammany Society. The wearing
of the bucktail was said to have been suggested by its appearance in the
costume of the Tammany Indians in the vicinity of New York.
2) Also, during the American Civil War, the members of the 13th
Pennsylvania Reserves were widely known in the Union Army as Bucktails
because each soldier wore a bucktail in his hat. The flagstaff of the
companies which formed the nucleus of this regiment was a green hickory
pole surmounted by a bucktail.
Election of
1828
The Jackson
Presidency
When Jackson was elected this was victory for the common
man. The common man ransack the White House and Jackson
spent the night of his Inauguration in a hotel.
The Kitchen Cabinet of Jackson did not include John Calhoun the
vice president or either of the two great sectional representatives,
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Jackson never forgave Clay for
his role in the Corrupt bargain and he saw Daniel Webster as just
the privileged elite.
The Kitchen Cabinet was a term used by political opponents of President of the
United States Andrew Jackson to describe the collection of unofficial advisers he
consulted in parallel to the United States Cabinet (the "parlor cabinet") following his
purge of the cabinet at the end of the Eaton affair and his break with Vice President
John C. Calhoun in 1831.[1][2]
In an unprecedented dismissal of five of the eight Cabinet officials in the middle of
his first term, Jackson dismissed Calhoun's allies Samuel D. Ingham, John Branch,
and John M. Berrien as well as his own supporters, Secretary of State Martin Van
Buren and Secretary of War John Eaton. However, Jackson retained Van Buren in
Washington as the minister to Great Britain.
Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet included his longtime political allies Martin Van Buren,
Francis Preston Blair, Amos Kendall, William B. Lewis, Andrew Jackson Donelson,
John Overton, and his new Attorney General Roger B. Taney. As newspapermen,
Blair and Kendall were given particular notice by rival papers.[2][3]
Blair was Kendall's successor as editor of the Jacksonian Argus of Western America,
the prominent pro-New Court newspaper of Kentucky. Jackson brought Blair to
Washington, D.C. to counter Calhounite Duff Green, editor of The United States
Telegraph, with a new paper, the Globe. Lewis had been quartermaster under
Jackson during the War of 1812; Andrew Donelson was Jackson's adoptive son and
private secretary; and Overton was Andrew Jackson's friend and business partner
since the 1790s
The Kitchen Cabinet was a term used by political opponents of President of the
United States Andrew Jackson to describe his ginger group, the collection of
unofficial advisers he consulted in parallel to the United States Cabinet (the "parlor
cabinet") following his purge of the cabinet at the end of the Eaton affair and his
break with Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1831.[1][2]
Secretary of State Martin Van Buren was a widower, and since he had no wife to
become involved in the Eaton controversy he managed to avoid becoming entangled
himself. In 1831 he resigned his cabinet post, as did Secretary of War John Eaton, in
order to give Jackson a reason to re-order his cabinet and dismiss Calhoun allies.
Jackson then dismissed Calhounites Samuel D. Ingham, John Branch, and John M.
Berrien. Van Buren, whom Jackson had already indicated he wanted to run for Vice
President in 1832, remained in Washington as a member of the Kitchen Cabinet until
he was appointed as Minister to Great Britain. Eaton was subsequently appointed
Governor of Florida Territory.
Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet included his longtime political allies Martin Van Buren,
Francis Preston Blair, Amos Kendall, William B. Lewis, Andrew Jackson Donelson,
John Overton, Duff Green, Isaac Hill, and his new Attorney General Roger B. Taney.
As newspapermen, Blair and Kendall were given particular notice by rival papers.
Margaret "Peggy" O'Neale (or O'Neill or O'Neal) was the daughter of William O'Neale, who owned a Washington, D.C.
boarding-house called the Franklin House, a social center for many politicians. Margaret was well-educated; she studied
French, among other subjects, and was known for her ability to play the piano.[1] She was also renowned for having a
"vivacious" temperament. In 1816, Margaret married her first husband John B. Timberlake, a purser in the United States
Navy. She was 17, and he was 39. Timberlake had been heavily in debt for years. They had three children together, with one
dying in infancy.
The Timberlake couple had been friends with Senator John Henry Eaton since 1818, when Eaton was a 28-year-old widower
and newly-elected U.S. Senator. After Timberlake told Eaton about their financial problems, Eaton unsuccessfully attempted
to get the Senate to pass a petition to pay Timberlake's debts accrued while in the Navy. While away on a four-year sea
voyage on the USS Constitution, Timberlake died of pulmonary disease in 1828, although there were allegations he
committed suicide.[1]
Scandal[edit]
With the encouragement of President Andrew Jackson, who liked them both, Peggy and Eaton married shortly after her
husband's death, although according to the social mores of the day, it would have been more proper for them to wait for a
longer mourning period. Their actions scandalized respectable people of the capital, especially many women. Second Lady
Floride Calhoun, the wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun, led a phalanx of other Cabinet wives in an "anti-Peggy"
coalition. Andrew Jackson's wife, Rachel, had a niece, Emily Donelson, whom Jackson called on as his surrogate "First Lady";
she sided with the Calhoun faction. Martin Van Buren, a widower and the only unmarried member of the Cabinet, allied
himself with the Eatons.
Jackson was sympathetic to the Eatons, in part, perhaps, because his own beloved late wife, Rachel Donelson Robards, had
been the subject of innuendo, as it was revealed that her first marriage had not yet been legally ended at the time of her
wedding to Jackson. Jackson believed such rumors were the cause of Rachel's heart attack and death on December 22,
1828, several weeks after his election.
Jackson appointed Eaton as his Secretary of War, hoping to limit the rumors, but the scandal intensified. Jackson felt political
opponents, especially those around Calhoun, were feeding the controversy.[1] The controversy finally resulted in the
resignation of almost all members of the Cabinet over a period of weeks in the spring of 1831. Postmaster General William T.
Barry would be the lone member to stay.
Andrew Jackson
King Andrew
Nullification
Crisis
Henry Clay
American System
A younger generation of Republicans led
by Henry Clay and John Calhoun believed
these infant industries deserved national
protection. Tariffs
Wanted a centralized Bank
More elastic with presidential control
Wanted Soft Currency or Loans:
Indian Removal
Marshall described
Indians as ward of the
Federal; government.
They deserved paternal
regard and protection
but were not citizens.
The justices could not
block Georgias effort to
extend its jurisdiction
over the tribe. Yet will
change its mind with
Worcester v. Georgia.
Procession of Victuallers,
commemorating a parade of
butchers through the streets of
Philadelphia on 1821.
Liberty means
absence of
government
from private
affairs. Need
for Free
Agency
Internal
Improvements
Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, 36 U.S. 420 (1837),[2] was a case
regarding the Charles River Bridge and the Warren Bridge of Boston,
Massachusetts, heard by the United States Supreme Court under the
leadership of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
In 1785, the Charles River Bridge Company had been granted a charter to
construct a bridge over the Charles River connecting Boston and
Cambridge. When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sanctioned
another company to build the Warren Bridge, chartered 1828, that would be
very close in proximity to the first bridge and would connect the same two
cities, the proprietors of the Charles River Bridge claimed that the
Massachusetts legislature had broken its contract with the Charles River
Bridge Company, and thus the contract had been violated. The owners of
the first bridge claimed that the charter had implied exclusive rights to the
Charles River Bridge Company. The Court ultimately sided with Warren
Bridge. This decision was received with mixed opinions, and had some
impact on the remainder of Taney's tenure as Chief Justice.
The Panic of
1819 and
Federal
Reserve Bank
The Panic of 1819 was the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States [1] followed by a general
collapse of the American economy persisting through 1821.[2] The Panic announced the transition of the nation
from its colonial commercial status with Europe [3] toward a dynamic economy, increasingly characterized by the
financial and industrial imperatives of laisser-faire capitalism[4] - and susceptible to boom and bust cycles.[5][6]
Though driven by global market adjustments in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars,[7] the severity of the
downturn was compounded by excessive speculation in public lands,[8] fueled by the unrestrained issue of paper
money from banks and business concerns.[9]
The Second Bank of the United States (BUS), itself deeply enmeshed in these inflationary practices,[10] sought
to compensate for its laxness in regulating the state bank credit market by initiating a sharp curtailment in loans
by its western branches, beginning in 1818.[11] Failing to provide metallic currency when presented with their
own bank notes by the BUS, the state-chartered banks began foreclosing on the heavily mortgaged farms and
business properties they had financed.[12] The ensuing financial panic, in conjunction with a sudden recovery in
European agricultural production in 1817[13] led to widespread bankruptcies and mass unemployment.[14]
The financial disaster and depression provoked popular resentment against banking and business enterprise,[15]
and a general belief that federal government economic policy was fundamentally flawed.[16] Americans, many for
the first time, became politically engaged so as to defend their local economic interests.[17]
The "New" Republicans and their American System [18] tariff protection, internal improvements and the BUS
were exposed to sharp criticism, eliciting a vigorous defense.[19]
This widespread discontent would be mobilized by Democratic-Republicans in alliance with "Old" Republicans,
and a return to the Jeffersonian principles of limited government, strict construction of the Constitution and
Southern preeminence.[20] The Panic of 1819 marked the end of the Era of Good Feelings [21] and the rise of
Jacksonian nationalism
Panic of 1837
Bank of the
United States
A satire, probably issued during August or September 1837, on the tug-of-war for influence on
the President between Jacksonian Democrats and the "soft money" or conservative elements
of the party. Here the artist portrays Van Buren as indecisive and secretive about his treasury
policy.
Sitting on a rail fence, Van Buren is pulled to the left by former President Andrew Jackson,
Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and other representatives of the hard money faction. One man
holds up the June 1836 "Letter to Sherrod Williams" published during the presidential
campaign as a statement of Van Buren's views on monetary matters, internal improvements,
and other cogent issues. On the opposite side Van Buren is pulled by a man (possibly editor
Thomas Allen) holding a copy of the "Madisonian," a conservative Democratic newspaper
initiated in August 1837, and four others. Jack Downing stands to the far right, watching and
commenting, "Well I swan, if the Old Gineral aint pullin' tu! Look out Matty or you'll commit
yourself this time!"
Jackson: "Oh! Major Jack Downing, The base treachery & perfidy of the Deposite Banks! The
money making concerns, devoid of patriotism & interest. By the Eternal! They are & ever have
been a curse."
Benton: "Gold! Gold! Gold! . . . Solitary & alone I still cry Gold! . . Partially obscured man
behind Benton: "The proud Isle! Every man, woman & child is taxed to pay her our debts."
Van Buren: "Take care gentlemen, you'll have me off the fence."
"Madisonian" man: "Preserve & regulate the spoils but do not destroy them."
Biddle was born in Philadelphia, the son of Charles Biddle and Hannah Shepard.
Biddle's mother was the daughter of a North Carolina merchant; his father was a
successful merchant. Biddle was a precocious student and was admitted to the
University of Pennsylvania when he was ten years old. His parents took a keen
interest in his education. At age thirteen they had him transferred to Princeton
University as a sophomore. He graduated in September 1801. At the age of fifteen,
Biddle was the highest ranking student in his class.
In 1804 Biddle went to France as a member of the American legation, where he
worked on claims resulting from the Louisiana Purchase. After one year, he took a
tour of Europe and Greece, then settled in London where he worked for two years as
secretary for future President James Monroe (18171875). During the time he spent
overseas, Biddle acquired valuable insights into the problems and techniques of
international finance.
Girard College is an independent boarding school on a 43-acre (17 ha) campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
in the United States.
Girard is for academically capable students, grades one through 12, and awards a full scholarship with a yearly
value of approximately $42,000 to every child admitted to the school. The scholarship covers most of the costs
of attending Girard, including tuition, room and board, books, and school uniforms. The scholarship is
renewable yearly until high-school graduation. Applicants must be at least six years old, demonstrate good
social skills and the potential for scholastic achievement, and come from a single-parent, lower-income family.
Girard accepts students on the basis of school records, admissions testing, a visit, and interviews, without
preference for race, gender, religion, or national origin.
Girard's mission is to prepare students for advanced education and life as informed, ethical, and productive
citizens through a rigorous educational program that promotes intellectual, social, and emotional growth
In 1822 Biddle assumed the presidency of the Second Bank of the United Statesthe first effective central
bank in U.S. history. The bank carried out regular commercial functions, and also acted as a collecting and
disbursing agent for the federal government. Under Biddle's guidance, the bank expanded to twenty-nine
branches and controlled one-fifth of the country's loans and bank notes in circulation.
Biddle was a brilliant administrator who maintained complete control over the Bank of the United States. His
political instincts, however, were less astute: He believed that any reasonable person must agree with him on
the value of the bank to the nation's economy. His hardheaded convictions proved disastrous for the bank.
By 1828 the central bank was under attack from President Andrew Jackson (18291837) whose personal
experience had given him a deep mistrust of financial institutions. Uncertain of the bank's future, Biddle
decided to press for re-chartering the bank in 1832, four years before the bank's original charter required the
action. Jackson vetoed the move, publicly denouncing the bank as a monopoly that was under foreign
influence. Though the reputation of the bank had improved under Biddle's leadership, public opinion favored
Jackson's position.
Arts and
Letters
Franklin Evans
was a dime novel
written by Walt
Whitman. These
dime novels
increased the
appetite for
people to read.
The Christian Advocate was the first paper published weekly under the authority of the General Conference of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was commenced in New York City, 9 September 1826. It continued
publication for many years as the first official and leading paper of the M.E. denomination.
Zion's Herald, published in Boston, actually preceded The Christian Advocate, but was not officially owned by
the General Conference. It was later merged with The Missionary Journal. Later, Methodists in New England reestablished Zion's Herald as a separate publication.[1]
The Missionary Journal, published in Charleston, was another publication which preceded The Christian
Advocate. Neither, however, was owned by the General Conference.
The Christian Advocate and Journal and Zion's Herald was a merger of The Christian Advocate with the earlier
Zion's Herald and The Missionary Journal.
The Western Christian Advocate was another early publication of the M.E. General Conference. It was published
in Cincinnati especially to serve the needs of the Methodist Church as it spread westward with the frontier.
The Christian Recorder was the title of an early official periodical of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
begun in 1863. It was published in Philadelphia.
The Ladies' Repository was the monthly magazine founded in 1841 by Cincinnati Methodists.
The Nashville Christian Advocate was a weekly newspaper, founded in 1836, that served as the official organ
and preeminent weekly of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South Carolina.
The story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (historical
Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its
ghosts and the haunting atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants and visitors.
The most infamous spectre in the Hollow is the Headless Horseman, said to be the ghost of a
Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of
the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his
head".
The "Legend" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious
schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town
rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy
farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means
of procuring Van Tassel's extravagant wealth. Bones, the local hero, vies with Ichabod for
Katrina's hand, playing a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster, and the fate of Sleepy
Hollow's fortune weighs in the balance for some time. The tension between the three is soon
brought to a head. On a placid autumn night, the ambitious Crane attends a harvest party at the
Van Tassels' homestead. He dances, partakes in the feast, and listens to ghostly legends told by
Brom and the locals, but his true aim is to propose to Katrina after the guests leave. His
intentions, however, are ill-fated.
Artists
Oxbow painting
Layout of
the
American
Womans
Home
Radical Democracy
William Apess
wrote How much
better it would be
if the whites
would act like
civilized people
and give every on
his due.
A piece of sheet
music from 1843