What accounted for high voter turnout in 1828 and rising voter turnout in the 1830s?

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HOW DID suffrage expand between 1800 and 1840?

WHAT STEPS did Andrew Jackson take to strengthen the executive branch of the

federal government?

WHO WERE Andrew Jackson's most important opponents and what

did they support?

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WHAT WERE the main issues of the campaign of 1840?

WHAT ROLE did newspapers and pamphlets play in American

popular culture in the first half of the

nineteenth century?

1 1 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY

1824-1840

268 CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

AMER

CAN COMMUN

T

ES

A Political Community Replaces Deference with Democracy

PHILADELPHIA HAD LONG BEEN A STRONGHOLD OF CRAFT

associations for skilled workers. Their organizations, and their parades and celebrations, were recognized parts of the urban community. Groups of master craftsmen marching in community parades with signs such as "By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand" not only demonstrated pride in their craft but also asserted their importance to the community as a whole. Pennsyl- vania enfranchised all men who were taxpayers in 1776, enabling many of Philadelphia's skilled workers to vote, but they were will- ing to follow the leadership of the city's political elite. This was the accepted rule of republican government as understood by leaders such as Thomas Jefferson: an independent and virtuous people willingly deferred to wealthy and enlightened leaders who would govern in the public interest. In reality, most states limited the vote to property owners, and so many ordinary men had little choice but to accept the decisions of the wealthy.

By the 1820s, the lives of workers in Philadelphia had changed. As the Market Revolution transformed the economy, many skilled workers lost their independence and became wage earners in factories owned by others. Members of urban workers' associations realized that their own economic interests were different from those of the owners. In other states, where many men gained the vote for the first time in the 1820s, a similar process of identifying common interests at odds with the traditional political elite was also under- way. The spread of universal manhood suf- frage marked the transition from traditional deferential politics to democracy.

In 1827, the British-born shoemaker William Heighton urged his fellow workers in Philadelphia to band together under "the banner of equal rights" and form their own political party to press for issues of direct concern to , work- ingmen, including the ten-hour day, free public education for their children, the end of imprisonment for debt, and curbing the powers of banks. "Surely we, the working class, who consti- tute a vast majority of the nation . . . have a right to expect [that] an improvement in our individual condition will be the natural result of legislative proceedings."

Heighton saw in the rising tide of universal manhood suf- frage the possibility of reaching his overarching aim of "eco- nomic democracy." In response to his new vision of majority

rule, the Philadelphia Working Men's Party was formed in 1828 and elected a slate of local officials as well as voting for Andrew Jackson for president. Andrew Jackson, who was so untradi- tional that at first national politicians did not take him seriously as a candidate, perfectly personified the new democratic mood and its animosity toward what was often termed "the monied aristocracy."

Thus, when a committee of the Philadelphia Working Men's Party attacked the banking system in 1829, Andrew Jackson paid attention. Their report decried the control by wealthy men of banks and of the paper money each bank issued (there was no national government-controlled currency until 1862), conclud- ing: "If the present system of banking and paper money be per- petuated, the great body of the working people must give over all hopes of ever acquiring any property." This fear of the threat to democracy from a moneyed aristocracy was common among vot- ers in rural areas of the South and West as well as in urban areas. Jackson not only understood this public resentment, but he also shared it. In 1832 he had Philadelphia's workers and others in mind when, speaking for "the humble members of society—the

farmers, mechanics and laborers," he refused to renew the charter of the Bank of the United

States and thereby instigated the events that we call the Bank War.

The Philadelphia Working Men's Party did not last very long. Too small and too narrowly focused to have wide

appeal, it was quickly absorbed into Jack- son's Democratic Party, with most of its spe-

cific demands unmet. Nevertheless, its brief history is significant for marking the end of tradi-

tional ideas about a unitary local political community and the transition to the more diverse and contentious community of competing interests that has characterized American democracy ever since. But it also set some limits. Politicians were quick to note that most Americans were uncomfortable with President Jackson's use of the language of class warfare in his veto mes- sage. Henceforth, whatever the competing interests might be, appeal to resentment alone was rarely successful. Rather, politi- cians sought to create national coalitions of voters with similar interests, creating new and more democratic political communi- ties than had existed before.

Bank War The political struggle between President Andrew Jackson and the supporters of the Second Bank of the United States.

IMAGE KEY for pages 266-267

a. A $5 note of the Second Bank of the United States.

b. Andrew Jackson speaking to a crowd

after his election.

c. A Cherokee Indian newspaper, Cherokee Phoenix.

d. An old, antique Bible bound in leather with a gold cross on the cover.

e. A portrait of Andrew Jackson by Thomas Scully.

f. Political cartoon showing Andrew

Jackson destroys the Second Bank of

the United States.

g. Americans endured poverty and unemployment by drinking, begging, and rioting in the streets of a city

during the 1837 Specie Panic.

h. A banner for William Henry Harrison

and John Tyler features political slogans

of the Log Cabin campaign above the date of the rally.

I An 1841 issue of the Crockett Almanac.

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 # 269

THE NEW DEMOCRATIC POLITICS

IN NORTH AMERICA

rip he early years of the nineteenth century were a time of extraordinary growth and change, not only for the United States but for all the coun- tries of North America as well. Seen in continental perspective, the Amer-

ican embrace of popular democracy was unusual. Elsewhere, crises over popular

rights dominated.

STRUGGLES OVER POPULAR RIGHTS: MEXICO, THE CARIBBEAN, CANADA

In 1821, after eleven years of revolts (see Chapter 9), Mexico achieved its indepen- dence from Spain. Briefly united under the leadership of Colonel Agustin de Itur- bide, Mexico declared itself a constitutional monarchy that promised equality for everyone—peninsulares, criollos, mestizos, and Indians alike. But because Spanish colonial rule had left a legacy of deep social divisions, the initial unity was short- lived. Iturbide reigned as Emperor of Mexico for little more than a year before he was overthrown by a military junta and later executed as a traitor. A series of weak presidents repeatedly invoked emergency powers and relied on the army, as they attempted to revive a faltering economy and reconcile the differences between the centralists—the vested interests of clergy, large landowners, and the military—and the federalists, largely criollos and mestizos, who hoped to create a liberal repub- lic modeled on the American one. The unresolved issue of elite versus popular rule continued to undermine the hope for unity, popular rights, and stable govern-

ment in an independent Mexico. The independence of Haiti in 1804 (see Chapter 9) set the pattern for

events in many other Caribbean islands in subsequent years. Independence destroyed the sugar industry, for freed slaves asserted their popular rights by refusing to perform the killing labor demanded of them on sugar plantations. The British Caribbean islands were racked with revolts, the largest occurring on Barbados in 1816 and on Jamaica in 1831. In response the British Parliament abol- ished slavery in all British colonies in 1834. As in Haiti, sugar production then plunged. The economic collapse that followed emancipation destroyed the polit- ical authority of local white elites, forcing the British government to impose

direct rule. Still a third crisis of popular rights occurred in British North America. In

1837, both Upper and Lower Canada rebelled against the limited representative government that the British government had imposed in the Constitutional Act of 1791. By far the most serious revolt was in predominantly French Lower Canada, where armed uprisings were brutally suppressed by British troops. In 1840, Britain abolished the local government of Lower Canada and joined it to Upper Canada in a union that most French Canadians opposed and in which they were a minority.

In comparison to these experiences, the rapid spread of suffrage in the United States and the growth of a vibrant but stable democratic political cul- ture seemed all the more extraordinary. But after a brilliant start, in the

1850s the United States, like its neighbors, foundered on a basic sectional dif- ference—slavery—that not even political democracy could reconcile (see

Chapter 15).

HOW DID suffrage expand

between 1800 and 1840?

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lip270 CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 THE EXPANSION AND LIMITS OF SUFFRAGE

Before 1800, most of the original thirteen states had limited the vote to property owners or taxpayers, thereby excluding about half of the white male population. Westward expansion changed the nature of American politics by undermining the traditional authority structures in the older states and supporting democracy in the newer states (see Map 11.1).

Most of the new states extended the right to vote to all white males over the age of twenty-one. Vermont led the way in 1791, followed by Kentucky in 1792. Tennessee (1796) and Ohio (1803) entered with low taxpayer qualifica-

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OHIO New state after 1800 (1803)

MAP 11.1 Population Trends: Westward Expansion, 1830 Westward population movement, only a trickle in 1800, had become a flood by 1830. Between 1800 and 1830, the U.S. white and African Ameri-

can population more than doubled (from 5.3 million to 12.9 million), but the trans-Appalachian

population grew tenfold (from 370,000 to 3.7 million). By 1830, more than a third of the nation's

inhabitants lived west of the original thirteen states.

WHO WERE the western settlers and why did they leave the East?

THE GRO WTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 . 271

tions that approached universal suffrage. By 1820, most of the older states had followed suit. The War of 1812 was an important impetus to change in many states, for the propertyless men called up for militia service in that war ques- tioned why they were eligible to fight but not to vote. By 1840, more than 90 per- cent of adult white males in the nation could vote. And they could vote for more officials: governors and (most important) presidential electors were now elected by direct vote, rather than chosen by small groups of state legislators).

Universal white manhood suffrage, of course, was far from true universal suffrage: the right to vote remained barred to most of the nation's free African American males and to women of any race. Only in five New England states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island) could free African American men vote before 1865. In the rest of the northern states, the right of free African American men to vote was restricted to only the most affluent property own- ers. Free African American men were denied the vote in all of the new western states as well. The constitutions of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and (later) Oregon—attempted to solve the "problem" of free African Americans by simply denying them entry into the state at all. Of course, all free black men were prohibited from voting in the slave states of the South.

What accounted for this nearly universal denial of voting rights to free black men? Racism accounted for much of it, an attitude that was strengthened by the backlash against the extremely controversial abolitionist movement of the 1830s and 1840s (see Chapter 13). In addition, as party lines hardened, northern Democ- rats, the party most closely aligned with the slave South, opposed enfranchising African American men who were almost certain to vote for their opponents. Above all, it was a sign of the growing influence that the southern slave system cast over

all of American politics In contrast, the reason for the denial of suffrage to white women stemmed

from the patriarchal belief that men headed households and represented the inter- ests of all household members. Even wealthy single women who lived alone were con- sidered subordinate to male relatives and denied the right to vote. Although unable to vote, women of the upper classes had long played important informal roles in national politics. At the local level as well, women—often the wives of leading citizens—were accustomed to engaging informally in politics through their benev- olent groups. These groups, often church related, had since colonial times not only provided charity to the poor but also raised money to support basic community institutions such as schools, churches, and libraries, in effect setting community pri-

orities in the process. Although the extension of suffrage to all classes of white men seemed to

indicate that women had no role in public affairs, in fact women's informal involvement in politics grew along with the increasing pace of political activity. At the same time, however, as "manhood" rather than property became the qualification for voting, men began to ignore women's customary political activ- ity and to regard their participation as inappropriate, an attitude that politi- cally active women increasingly resented.

THE ELECTION OF 1824

The 1824 election marked a dramatic end to the political truce that James Mon- roe had established in 1817. Five candidates, all of them members of the Repub- lican Party, ran for president in the elections of 1824: William H. Crawford of Georgia, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, and John C. Calhoun of South Car- olina, who withdrew before the election, to run for vice president. Jackson, a

QUICK REVIEW

Suffrage

• By 1840 over 70 percent of adult white males could vote.

• African American men were allowed to vote in only five New England states.

• The right to vote was denied to women of any race.

QUICK REVIEW

Expansion of the Franchise

• Opposition to land ownership as qualification for voting.

• Demands that all white men be treated equally.

• As political rights for white men expanded, political opportunities shrank for women and free black people.

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Andrew Jackson 99 153,544

(38) (43)

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 84 108,740 (32) (31)

William H. Crawford 41 46,618

(16) (13)

Henry Clay 37 47,136 (14) (13)

MAP 11.2

The Election of 1824 The presidential vote of 1824 was clearly sectional. John Quincy Adams carried his native New England and little else, Henry Clay carried only his own state of Kentucky and two adjoining states, and Crawford's appeal was limited to Virginia and Georgia. Only Andrew Jackson moved beyond the re- gional support of the Old Southwest to wider appeal and the greatest number of electoral votes. Because no candidate had a majority, however, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which chose Adams.

WHAT ROLE did political parties play in the election of 1824?

1

272 • CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

latecomer to the race, was at first not taken seriously because his record as a legislator was lackluster and his political views unknown. He was not a member of the elite political group that had made up the governing class since 1790. However, owing to his national reputa- tion as a military leader, Jackson won 43 percent of the popular vote and 99 electoral votes—more than any other candidate. The runner-up, John Quincy Adams, won 31 percent of the popular vote and 84 electoral votes. But neither had an electoral majority, leaving it up to the House of Representatives, as in the election of 1800, to pick the winner.

After some political dealing, Henry Clay threw his support to Adams, and the House elected Adams presi- dent. This was customary and proper: the Constitution gave the House the power to decide, and Clay had every right to advise his followers how to vote. But when Adams named Clay his secretary of state, the traditional stepping- stone to the highest office, ackson's supporters promptly accused them of a "corrupt bargain." Popular opinion, the new element in politics, supported Jackson. John Quincy Adams served four miserable years as president, knowing that Jackson would challenge him, and win, in 1828 (see Map 11.2).

THE NEW POPULAR DEMOCRATIC CULTURE

Mass campaigns—huge political rallies, parades, and candidates with wide "name recognition," such as mil- itary heroes—were the hallmarks of the new popular democratic culture. So were less savory customs, such as the distribution of lavish food and (especially) drink at polling places, which frequently turned elections into rowdy, brawling occasions. The spirit that moti- vated the new mass politics was democratic pride in

10-2 John Quincy Adams, A "Corrupt Bargain" or Politics

as Usual? (1824)

participation. And as the election of 1824 showed, along with the spread of universal male suffrage went

a change in popular attitudes that spelled the end of the dominance of small political elites. New national parties that superseded sectional interests were beginning to emerge and to succeed, they had to appeal to the interests of a diverse range of voters.

A print revolution helped to democratize politics by spreading word far beyond the nation's cities about the parades, protests, and celebrations that became a basic part of popular democracy. The print revolution had begun in 1826, when a reform organization, the American Tract Society, installed the country's first steam-powered press and rapidly turned out 300,000 Bibles and 6 million reli- gious tracts. The greatest growth, however, was in newspapers that reached a mass audience. The number of newspapers soared from 376 in 1810 to 1,200 in 1835. This rise paralleled the growth of interest in politics, for most newspapers were pub- lished by political parties and were openly partisan. Packed with articles that today would be considered libelous and scandalous, newspapers were entertaining and popular reading, and they rapidly became a key part of democratic popular culture.

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Figure 11.1 Pre—Civil War Voter Turnout The turnout of voters in presidential elections more than doubled from

1824 to 1828, the year Andrew Jackson was first elected. Turnout surged to 80 percent in 1840, the year the Whigs triumphed. The ex- tension of suffrage to all white men, and heated competition between

two political parties with nationwide membership, turned presidential

election campaigns into events with great popular appeal.

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11

2 73

This well-known painting by George Caleb Bingham, Stump Speaking, shows a group of men (and boys and dogs) of all social classes brought together by their common interest in politics.

George Caleb Bingham (American 1811-1879), "Stump Speaking," 1853-54. Oil on canvas, 42 1/2 x 58 in.

Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Bank of America.

The new politics placed great emphasis on participation and party loyalty. One way for ordinary citizens to show their loyalty was to turn out for parades, which derived from processions like those of Philadelphia artisans' associations in earlier times. Political pro- cessions were huge affairs, marked by the often spontaneous par- ticipation of men carrying badges and party regalia, banners and placards, and portraits of the candidates, accompanied by bands, fireworks, and the shouting and singing of party slogans and songs. The political party provided some of the same satisfactions that popular sports offer today: excitement, entertainment, and a sense of belonging. In effect, political parties functioned as giant national men's clubs. They made politics an immediate and engrossing topic of conversation and argument for men of all walks of life. In this sense, the political party was the political manifestation of a wider

social impulse toward community (see Figure 11.1).

THE ELECTION OF 1828

The election of 1828 was the first to demonstrate the power and effectiveness of the new popular democratic culture and party sys-

tem. With the help of Martin Van Buren, his campaign manager,

Andrew Jackson rode the wave of the new democratic politics to

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ANDREW JACKSON (Democrat)

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274

CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 0824-1840

Politics, abetted by the publication of inexpensive party newspapers, was a great topic of conversation among men

in early nineteenth-century America, as

Richard Caton Woodville's 1845 paint-

ing Politics in an Oyster House suggests.

Richard Caton Woodville, "Politics in an Oyster

House," 1848. Oil on canvas. The Walters Art

Museum, Baltimore.

Democrats Political party formed in the 1820s under the leadership of Andrew Jackson; favored states' rights and a limited role for the federal government.

the presidency. Voter turnout in 1828 was more than twice that of 1824. Jackson's party, the Democratic Republicans (they soon dropped "Repub- licans" and became simply the Democrats), spoke the language of democ- racy, and they opposed the special privilege personified for them by President John Quincy Adams and his National Republican (as distin- guished from the earlier Jeffersonian Republican) Party. Neither Jack- son nor Adams campaigned on his own—that was considered undignified. But the supporters of both candidates campaigned vigorously, freely, and negatively. Jackson's supporters, playing on popular resentment of a wealthy political elite, portrayed the campaign as a contest between "the democracy of the country, on the one hand, and a lordly purse-proud aristocracy on the other." In their turn, Adams's supporters depicted Jack- son as an illiterate backwoodsman, a murderer (he had ordered the exe- cution of deserters in the Tennessee militia), and an adulterer (apparently unwittingly, he had married Rachel Robards before her divorce was final).

Jackson won 56 percent of the popular vote (well over 80 percent in much of the South and West) and a decisive electoral majority of 178 votes to Adams's 83. The vote was interpreted as a victory for the com- mon man. But the most important thing about Jackson's victory was the coalition that achieved it. The new democratically based political system

worked together to elect him. Popular appeal, which Jackson the military hero certainly possessed, was not enough to ensure victory. To be truly national, a party had to create and maintain a coalition of North, South, and West. The Democrats were the first to do this (see Map 11.3).

MAP 11.3 The Election of 1828 Andrew Jackson's victory in 1828 was the first success of the new national party system. The coalition of state parties that elected him was national, not regional. Although his

support was strongest in the South and West, his ability to carry Pennsylvania and parts of New York demonstrated his national appeal.

TO WHAT extent was Andrew Jackson a "popular" president?

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11

2 75

THE JACKSON PRESIDENCY

A ndrew Jackson's election ushered in a new era in American politics, an era that historians have called the "Age of the Common Man." Jackson himself, however, was no common man: he was a military hero, a rich slave owner, and an imperious and decidedly undemocratic personality. "Old Hickory," as Jackson was affectionately called, was tough and unbending, just like hickory itself, one of the hardest of woods. Yet he had a mass appeal to ordinary people, unmatched—and indeed unsought—by earlier presidents. The secret to Jackson's extraordinary appeal lies in the changing nature of American society. Jackson was the first to respond to the ways in which westward expansion and the extension of the suffrage were changing politics at the national as well as the local and state levels.