...APUSH Study Guide 8 A weak Confederacy and the Constitution, 1776-1790 Themes/Constructs: The federal Constitution represented a moderately conservative reaction against the democratilizing effects of the Revolution and the Articles of Confederation. The American Revolution was not a radical transformation like the French or Russian revolutions, but it produced political innovations and some social change in the direction of greater equality and democracy. The American Revolution did not overturn the social order, but it did produce substantial changes in social customs, political institutions, and ideas about society and government. Among the changes were the separation of church and state in some places, the abolition of slavery in the North, written political constitutions, and a shift in political power from the eastern seaboard toward the frontier. The first weak government, the Articles of Confederation, was unable to exercise real authority, although it did successfully deal with the western lands issue. The Confederation’s weakness in handling foreign policy, commerce and the Shays Rebellion spurred the movement to alter the Articles. Instead of revising the Articles, the well-off delegates to the Constitutional Convention created a charter for a whole new government. In a series of compromises, the convention produced a plan that provided for a vigorous central government, a strong executive, the protection for property, while still upholding republican...
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...Chapter 13 Mark the one best answer for each of the following questions. 53. In the 1820s and 1830s one issue that greatly raised the political stakes was a. economic prosperity. b. the Peggy Eaton affair. c. a lessening of political party organizations. d. the demise of the Whig Party. e. slavery. 54. The new two party political system that emerged in the 1830s and 1840s a. divided the nation further. b. was seen at the time as a weakening of democracy. c. resulted in the Civil War. d. fulfilled the wishes of the founding fathers. e. became an important part of the nation’s checks and balances. 55. In the 1820s and 1830s the public’s attitude regarding political parties a. grew more negative. b. saw little change from the early years of our nation. c. reinforced the belief of the Era of Good Feelings. d. accepted the sometimes wild contentiousness of political life. e. none of the above. 56. By the 1840s new techniques of politicking included all of the following except a. the use of banners. b. free drinks. c. parades. d. baby kissing. e. deference...
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...Jacksonian Democrats helped to create a more democratic America and because of this, believed to be many things, some real and some fictional. In most cases they perceived themselves as defenders of equal economic opportunity, even though they occasionally put their own interests before those of the people. They also thought of themselves as guardians of political democracy, while using class differences to their advantage to bring support. Jacksonian Democrats felt that they were the protectors of the Constitution and of individual liberties but many times they put their rivalry with the Northeastern industry and Whig politics before these ideals. While Jacksonians correctly viewed themselves as guardians of political democracy, equal economic opportunity, and individual liberty, they were often more interested in developing these concepts rather than protecting them. Jackson was a strong opponent of the unequal and aristocrat dominated economic structure in most of America. He was very against the Bank of America because he believed it to have a monopoly on banking and felt that it was owned and run unjustly by wealthy aristocrats who were not always true Americans (B). It must also be noted however, that while the Bank of America was undoubtedly corrupt (Nicholas Biddle was known to have given sums of money to close friends, and was also known to regularly bribe newspapers and similar media.) it also did what it was supposed to do very well. It provided money and credit...
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...President Andrew Jackson was the first president not from the rich Aristocracy class. This means he was not born into the wealthy gentleman class as the prior presidents were. He was a man of the people and for the people and strongly believed in that motto. The road he took to the White House and the way he ran the country as President would change the country and democracy forever. Andrew Jackson was born on the frontier in South Carolina to a poor family. His Father died at a young age and his mother raise him and his brothers. At the age of 14 Jackson left to join the continental army to fight the British in the Revolutionary War(23) Meachem. Him and his brothers were captured by the British and put into a prison camp and treated very poorly. His brothers were killed in this camp and coming out of it he developed a strong hatred toward the British. Also his mom was killed while serving as a nurse for the Army so he was an orphan after the War and travelled from family to family. Growing up poor and having bad experiences with the British as a young kid will affect his policies as president. Jackson became a successful lawyer in Tennessee and made a name for himself and became very wealthy. He was elected the general of the Tennessee volunteer Army at the time of the Battle of 1812(67) Meachem. His most impressive accomplishment was his victory at the battle...
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...Task 2 A Mahatma Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Kathiawar, India on October 2, 1869, in. After studying law in London, England, he left for South Africa in 1893, where he spent twenty years fighting biased legislation against Indians. As an innovator of passive opposition of mass non-violent civil defiance, he turn out to be a major political and spiritual leader (Biography.com 2013). In 1914, Gandhi went back to India and became the leader of the Indian National Congress and gave his support the Home Rule movement, furthermore advocating a strategy of non-violent non-cooperation to attain independence. Gandhi’s main objective was to assist poor laborers and farmers protest discriminating taxation and prejudices. His struggled was to liberate women, ease poverty, and stop class discrimination. Mahatma Gandhi main goal was for India to rule itself (Biography.com 2013). Mahatma Gandhi spent two years in jail, from 1922-24, for conspiracy. In 1930, he marched 200 miles to the ocean to gather salt to show defiance to governmental control. Gandhi sat at the London Round Table Conference in 1931, regarding Indian constitutional reform. In 1946, he negotiated for a new constitutional structure with the Cabinet Mission. In 1947 after the independence, Gandhi worked to stop the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Bengal, which eventually caused his assassination (Biography.com 2013). Mahatma Gandhi's pledge to non-violence and conviction to simple living has been an inspiration of hope for oppressed...
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...On January 17th of 1780, Abigail Adam sends a letter to her son, John Quincy Adam, later president of America, who is traveling with his father, a United States diplomat. Abigail writes this letter as a concerned, yet prideful mother to her son. With affection, patriotism, historical allusions, and hero figures, Adam offers advices on how to learn through experiences, which can improve one's quality of life. To create the same ground/connection between her and her son, Adam reflects back on the forceful decision of urging John to go with his father and brother on the voyage. To make up for it, Adam tenders her tone by acknowledging his “knowledge of the language must give you greater advantages. ” By Complementing John, their mother-son...
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...Summarize the Age of Jackson and his war with the Bank and their importance including the party machine, Democrats and Whigs, public and private freedom, South Carolina and Nullification, Calhoun’s political theory, the Nullification crisis, Indian removal, the Supreme Court and the Indians, Biddle’s bank, pet banks, the economy, and the panic of 1837. Although winning the most electoral and popular votes during the presidential election of 1824, Andrew Jackson lost the race to John Quincy Adams. The election of 1824 laid the ground work for a new system of political parties. In 1828, Van Buren, established the political apparatus of the Democratic Party, complete with local and state party units overseen by a national committee and network of local newspapers devoted to the party and to the election of Andrew Jackson. During the election, Jackson’s supporters made few campaign promises, relying on their candidate’s popularity and the working of party machinery to get the vote out. Nearly 57 percent of the eligible electorate cast ballots, more than double the percentage four years earlier. Jackson won a resounding victory, carrying the entire South and West, along with Pennsylvania. His election was the first to demonstrate how the advent if universal white male voting organized by national political parties, had transformed American politics. Andrew Jackson had little formal education and was a man of many contradictions. He held a vision of democracy that excluded any...
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...On the 12th of January, 1780, Abigail Adams wrote to her son, John Quincy Adams, regarding his travel with his father, John Adams. She stresses that she sent him off to France with his father and brother because she believes it is best for him to become a developed individual. In this letter, Abigail Adams utilizes pathos, archaic diction, and allusion to inspire her son, John Quincy Adams, to take advantage of the opportunities given to him while traveling with his father, and to use these opportunities to become a more mature man. Adams encourages her son to be faithful and hardworking on his long journey ahead by appealing to his mother-son affection for her. She begins the letter by stating “MY DEAR SON,” a tone which establishes that she is trying to guide him, rather than reprimand him. In the first paragraph of the letter, she states that “[She hopes he has] had no occasion, either from enemies or the dangers of the sea, to repent [his] second voyage to France.” By stating that she is taking immeasurable concern with her son’s safety, she further appeals to his emotions, with the belief that this would make him more welcoming towards her advice. She compliments his language skills, whilst emphasizing that “As [he increases] in years, [he] will find [himself] understanding opening and daily improving,” justifying her claim in line 16 by describing her meeting with an author. By doing so, she establishes the “Older-Younger” sense of advice offering. In other words, that...
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...The Impact of Jacksonian Democracy When Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828, the Democratic Party began to shape a new era. Unlike many presidents before him, he appealed to the masses, or the “common man”. The mission of the Jacksonian Democrats was to amplify the strength of the poor, and decrease the influence and power of the wealthy. Economically, the Jacksonian Democrats benefitted because during this time, transportation was beginning to improve, and therefore commerce was boosted. However, President Jackson was forced to deal with the issue of the National Bank, which he believed held too much power and control over national economy. He also was forced to handle other important issues such as slavery, westward expansion, and sectionalism, and many people would come to dislike him for his opinion on these topics. For these reasons, Jacksonian Democracy impacted politics, national economy, and the status of the Union in both positive and negative ways. Previous to 1828, most of the men who held a high office were wealthy, aristocratic men who were brought up by established parents. These men were always educated, usually having completed college. Jackson was only the second president to take office without a college education, and this is one of the reasons why he appealed so much to all kinds of people, particularly the middle and lower classes. Jackson’s inauguration changed the way people looked at the government. People came from all around...
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...Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States who was born on March 5, 1767 in the West, specifically Waxhaw between South Carolina and North Carolina. Jackson grew up in poverty and received minimal education before the Revolutionary War but declared “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” Andrew Jackson was elected into the Presidency office on March 4, 1829 until March 4, 1837 and became known as the “people's President”. Over the course of eight years the distinctions that separate Jackson from the other President's become evident along with the similarities. Jackson’s influential position as the President set a precedent for the future presidents to come. Jackson's early life depicts his desire to put the people’s input as a priority because he was a common man himself. Jackson was sixteen years old when he became orphaned and lacked a formal education resulting in Jackson becoming the first president to be born in poverty. Moreover, many of the previous Presidents were from the Virginia aristocracy such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Jackson become known as the common man because he “did what he thought was necessary to protect their strength and freedom of action” (Watson 133) unlike other Presidents who abided by the Constitution verbatimly. Jackson and his followers tried to improve the state's, labor conditions, and security of banks, and Jackson was the only President who vetoed twelve bills...
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...After serving in Europe as a diplomat, John Adams left London (without any immediate commitments) and returned to America in 1788. He was uncertain whether to return to his practise of law or continue on with politics, however after the unexpected reception in his home country showing public admiration and support he opted for the latter. He made a crucial, life-changing decision within the following few weeks: to run for Presidency. George Washington and John Hancock were his friendly, but serious, competition. Although he was popular in his native state of Massachusetts, John Hancock only got four electoral votes and Washington received sixty-nine of the total one hundred and seven Electoral College votes. Adams was content with being elected...
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...The Corrupt Bargain of 1824 was a presidential election of the war hero, Andrew Jackson, and the son of the second president, John Quincy Adams. This election is what many people consider the final collapse of the Republican-Federalist Party. This is the first time that there has not been a single Federalist that is running for the position of the president of the United States of America, POTUS. The winner in the Electoral College was Andrew Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812, He won with a small lead with him at ninety-nine votes and John Quincy Adams, the son of the second president and Monroe' secretary of state, closely followed with on 15 votes behind him with eighty-four votes. Andrew Jackson won with a narrow victory, receiving forty-three...
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...Andrew Jackson was the first president to be born in a log cabin. He was not New England wealthy elite, like his opponent John Quincy Adams. If the electors were appointed by the legislature, he did not have a chance of becoming president. When he ran for president in 1828, the land ownership requirements were taken away for the first time, giving all white adult males the chance to vote. In the words of Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy, “the election was a “revolution” comparable to that of 1800.” (Changes in elections- document 2) The election of 1828 was a more democratic election, therefore electing a more democratic president. Due to the new electoral system, Jackson invented the Spoils System to ‘thank’ his supporters. Being a war hero, Jackson thought that To the Victors belong the Spoils. The ‘spoils’ were not just money though. Jackson rewarded his supporters with government jobs, saying “I submit, therefore, to you consideration whether the efficiency of the government would not be promoted … and integrity better secured by a general extension of the law which limits appointments to four years.” (Spoils System document 2)...
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...Discuss the cultural shift in America during the Jacksonian era, including the rise of the middle class/"common man." What was Andrew Jackson's philosophy of government and how did this impact the office of the presidency. How would you describe the meaning of "Jacksonian Democracy," and Andrew Jackson's relationship to it? In addition to the class readings, please watch the posted video clip (The Presidents) on the course homepage and discuss it in your response. Question 2 Andrew Jackson left a permanent imprint upon American politics and the presidency. Within eight years, he melded the unstructured coalition of personal followers who had elected him into the country's most durable and successful political party, an electoral machine whose organization and discipline would serve as a model for all others. At the same time, his controversial conduct in office galvanized opponents to organize the Whig party. The Democratic Party was Jackson's child; the national two-party system was his legacy. Jackson's drive for party organization was spurred by his own difficulties with Congress. Unlike other famously strong Presidents, Jackson defined himself not by enacting a legislative program but by thwarting one. In eight years, Congress passed only one major law, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, at his behest. During this time Jackson vetoed twelve bills, more than his six predecessors combined. One of these was the first "pocket veto" in American history. Jackson strengthened...
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...John Quincy Adams has been called one of the most talented Secretaries of State the United States has ever had. Why? Most have thought that it was through the actions of President Monroe who relied heavily on Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Specifically, the Monroe Doctrine in which Adams established one of the major foundations for all future American policy (1), is thought to be one of his greatest achievements. It would be used as a justification of U.S. intervention in Latin American countries, but mostly for the time being it was mostly a bold statement of independence from European influence (p. 355), for it forbade further European colonization of the Americas. However, digging deeper into the background and works of Adams, I found that he is often credited with "the greatest diplomatic victory ever won by a single individual in the history of the U.S. The “Transcontinental Treaty”. It was signed in 1819 with Spain. The Spanish debt was forgiven in exchange for east and west Florida and all land claims east of the Mississippi River. In addition, Adams proposed that Spain cede territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean to the north of California at te h42nd parallel (p352). In addition, Adams got America's Western boundary drawn to the Pacific Ocean, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains and along the 42nd parallel (the northern border of California) -- an extraordinary diplomatic accomplishment. Adams was also responsible for defining...
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