What We Will Cover in the Remainder of Unit 2 – Repeated for Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10

Seeing How History Changes

Most links place historical facts in a table so you can easily compare them. You are not memorizing all of the facts placed in these tables. Instead, you are using those facts to notice changes and patterns. To help you, most links provide tips on what to notice. These things are placed together because it is very difficult for students to notice change over time.

Things to notice in general:

The new sections:

·         The North = the North East (mainly New England) +  the  rise of the Northwest (west of the Appalachians)

·         The South = The Southeast (sometimes called the upper South) + the rise of the Southwest (sometimes called the deep South)

The general changes:

-       How are new technologies for transportation changing geographic relationships?

-       How is the productivity of new and old land changing geographic relationships?

-       What is capital doing?

-       What populations are becoming surplus (as in not able to earn a living in the North and not worth their overhead as slaves in the South)?

 

Seeing Change Over Time from 1800 to about the Election of 1840

·         A brief version of the elections and the changes from 1800 to the election of 1840Look for the yellow highlights
You can see a more detailed version of Jackson’s and Van Buren’s presidencies and the financial destruction of the Panic of 1837 at the bottom of this webpage

·         The transformation of the nation between circa 1800 to circa 1820 (a midpoint) to circa 1840 – a chart that lets you see all of major changes from 1800 to 1840. (This opens in a New Window.)  Look for the yellow highlights

Purpose:

-       The shifts in major issues such as revolution and support for or rejection of slavery

-       Slavery and the interconnection with land and who will control the new territories (slaveholders with plantations or free farmers)

-       Slavery and land and voting - Click here for the changes in who votes (This link stays on this webpage.)  Notice how the Constitution and slavery and voting are interconnected in Political Realities of Status of Slave and Free State Balance at the time of the Missouri Compromise (This opens in a New Window.)
Caution 1:  Notice in the link above that the Northern states in 1820 already have greater population and more representatives, even though the South gets to count 3/5 of the slaves toward determining how many representatives white males can vote for. The South already does not have the population to dominate in the House of Representatives.
Caution 2: The Missouri Compromise of 1820:

1.       Kept the number of slave and free states (and their number of Senators in the Senate) equal for the immediate period. In 1820, the South has only a stalemate in the Senate.

2.       Excluded slavery from all of the remaining land of the Louisiana Territory. That land will become 7 more free states and thus 14 more Senators. With the map, there is only one other possible slave state for 2 more Senators and that is Arkansas. Eventually when free settlers move to those 7 new states and the South will no longer have that stalemate.

-       Voting , universal manhood suffrage, and how presidential candidates are selected, including the appeal of military heroes in this era

-       Native Americans and military heroes and pushing the Native Americans west of the Mississippi

-       The Supreme Court and what it does and what happens to it - Click here for the two chief justices. Notice how there is more power to the national government, to the Supreme Court, and to corporations and contracts (This opens in a New Window.)

-       Financial policies of Hamilton and what happens to them in the coming 40 years – including the financial destruction of the Panic of 1837 (Notice the blue arrows-- and revealing this Panic in Study Tool: Jackson to Tyler  (1828 to 1840) (This opens in a New Window.)

 

 

Who Were the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court:

·         1800-1835 - Chief Justice John Marshall, the Chief Justice appointed by the last Federalist President, John Adams in 1800 during the lame duck period

·         1835-1864 - Chief Justice Roger Taney, the jurist with a different view from Marshall who was appointed by Andrew Jackson at Marshall’s death.

 

What Are the Shifts in Who Votes (Suffrage), How Candidates Are Chosen, and How Campaigning Works

  1. During Jefferson’s administration, states changed voting requirements resulted in more white male voters
  2. This continues to the rise of  white universal manhood suffrage about 1828.
    Note: in the North, some free black men could vote.
  3. The shift in how candidates were chosen:
    • From about 1800 to the 1820s, candidates were chosen by a caucus (a talk within a group) of political party members who had been elected to office (as in member of the House of Representatives or a Senator). At that time, Being Secretary of State was considered necessary preparation to run for President because of its responsibilities for foreign policy.
    • The Jacksonian period brought a rejection of what they called “King Caucus” (with King being a dirty word because of its association with King George III). The political party convention replaced it—at that time a very volatile meeting of delegates who choose the candidate for President.
  1. The Jacksonian era use of the “spoils system” meant that federal workers chosen by their political party did campaigning for their party as part of their jobs on the federal payroll.

 

Other things are going on as well to alter voting that your book does not cover. Examples:

  • States determine who votes. The NEW western states offered:
    • Not only more opportunities for men to get land (with property being traditionally a voter requirement)
    • But also more liberal voting rules in hopes of getting settlers.
  • By the Jacksonian era, citizens in the eastern states began to demand the same voting opportunities as those in the west.
  • State laws change, and voters (not the state legislatures) are deciding the electoral college results.

 

 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2016

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu

Last Updated:

2016

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/