APUSH Units 4.3-4.8APUSH Units 4.3-4.8

APUSH Period 4 (1800-1848): Topics 4.3 to 4.8

Regional politics, foreign policy, the Market Revolution, expanding democracy, and Jackson. Organized around the CED learning objectives. Big picture. After 1800 the nation grows fast, economically, politically and geographically. Three tensions drive everything in this period: (1) how strong the federal government should be, (2) North vs. South vs. West regional interests, and (3) who counts as part of "the people" as democracy expands (white men) while slavery and Native removal also grow.

4.3 Politics and Regional Interests

Era of Good Feelings (1817-1825): Monroe's presidency; the Federalists faded after the Hartford Convention (1814-15) looked disloyal, so one party (Democratic-Republicans) dominated. Real disagreement continued inside the party, by region.

Henry Clay's American System: a protective tariff (Tariff of 1816), a national bank (Second Bank of the U.S., 1816), and internal improvements (roads, canals) to build a national market.

Region Economy Position

North Manufacturing, trade Favored tariffs and the bank

South Cotton, exports Opposed tariffs (raise prices, hurt exports); strict construction

West Farming, new land Wanted roads and canals (internal improvements) and cheap land

Marshall Court strengthens federal power: McCulloch v. Maryland (1819: implied powers, states can't tax the bank), Gibbons v. Ogden (1824: federal control of interstate commerce), Fletcher v. Peck and Dartmouth v. Woodward (protected contracts).

Panic of 1819 and the Missouri Compromise (1820): Missouri slave, Maine free, and slavery banned north of 36°30' in the rest of the Louisiana Territory. It postponed, but didn't solve, the slavery question.

4.4 America on the World Stage

Louisiana Purchase (1803): bought from France for about $15 million; doubled the country and opened western expansion. Jefferson worried about the constitutional basis (strict vs. loose construction).

Embargo Act (1807): Jefferson's attempt to pressure Britain and France by stopping trade; it hurt the U.S. economy more than them. War of 1812: causes were impressment, British trade restrictions, British support for Native resistance (Tecumseh), and War Hawks wanting expansion. Treaty of Ghent (1814) restored the pre-war status; Jackson's win at New Orleans (1815) boosted nationalism. Effects: Federalist decline, growth of manufacturing, more national pride.

Diplomacy after the war: Rush-Bagot (1817, demilitarized the Great Lakes), Convention of 1818 (border at 49th parallel), Adams-Onis Treaty (1819) (Spain gave Florida to the U.S.).

Monroe Doctrine (1823): the Western Hemisphere was closed to new European colonization, and the U.S. would stay out of European affairs. It was a statement of power more than a means to enforce it at the time.

4.5 Market Revolution: Industrialization

What it is: a shift from household, local production to a national market of manufacturing, specialization, and wage labor.

Technology and agriculture: cotton gin (Whitney, 1793; made cotton profitable and expanded slavery), interchangeable parts, steel plow (Deere, 1837), mechanical reaper (McCormick, 1830s).

Factory system: Slater's mill (1790), then textile mills like Lowell, where young women ("mill girls") worked long hours.

Transportation Revolution: steamboats (Fulton, 1807), canals (Erie Canal, 1825, linking the Great Lakes to New York City), the National Road, and early railroads. Telegraph (Morse, 1844) sped communication.

Regional specialization: North = manufacturing; West = food crops; South = cotton ("King Cotton"), which tied all regions together and kept the South dependent on slave labor.

Effects: city growth, more immigration (Irish and German, especially in the 1840s), and bigger gaps between rich and poor. The Panic of 1837 showed how connected and risky the new economy was.

4.6 Market Revolution: Society and Culture

Middle class and "separate spheres": men worked outside the home; ideal middle-class women ran the household and morals (the "cult of domesticity"). Many working-class and immigrant women worked in mills or as servants anyway.

Workers: long hours, low pay, child labor, and early unions; Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) ruled that unions were legal.

Immigrants: Irish (many Catholic) and German immigrants faced nativism (hostility to immigrants).

Slavery grew with cotton: the cotton gin and westward expansion boosted demand, and the internal slave trade broke up families. Free Black communities in the North faced discrimination and limited rights.

Native Americans were pushed west as settlers moved onto their land (leads into Jackson's removal policy).

4.7 Expanding Democracy

More white men could vote: states dropped property requirements, giving near-universal white male suffrage. Women, most free Black men, and Native Americans remained excluded, so democracy expanded unevenly.

Party politics changed: nominating conventions replaced congressional caucuses, voters picked electors directly in most states, and campaigns became mass events with rallies and slogans (the "log cabin" campaign of 1840).

Election of 1824: Jackson won the most votes but not a majority; the House chose John Quincy Adams, and Adams then named Clay Secretary of State, which Jackson's supporters called a "corrupt bargain."

Election of 1828: Jackson won as the champion of the "common man." Second Party System: Democrats (Jackson) vs. Whigs (opposed "King Andrew's" use of power, favored the American System).

4.8 Jackson and Federal Power

Spoils system: rewarding supporters with government jobs; Jackson said rotation made government more democratic.

Indian Removal Act (1830): forced Native nations in the Southeast west of the Mississippi. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) said the Cherokee weren't a foreign nation; Worcester v. Georgia (1832) said Georgia couldn't extend its laws over Cherokee land, but removal went ahead anyway. A minority faction signed the Treaty of New Echota (1835), leading to the Trail of Tears (1838-39).