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Essay Subject: Analysis of political & economic forces from 1776-1861. Shift from elitist society to capitalist democracy. White male supremacy. Presidency of Andrew Jackson.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analysis of political & economic forces from 1776-1861. Shift from elitist society to capitalist democracy. White male supremacy. Presidency of Andrew Jackson. Paper Introduction: Antebellum America as an Egalitarian Society Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. A record 54.3 percent of those eligible actuallyvoted, nearly double the percentage turnout of 1824. Forexample, the freehold requirement that had denied voting to all but holdersof real estate was almost everywhere discarded before 182 , while thetaxpaying qualification was also removed, if more slowly and gradually(Britannica 2 ). Notably, following Jackson's election, Clay and DanielWebster of Massachusetts formed an opposition party which came to be knownas the Whigs, after the British opponents of the Tory Party (IWB 2 ).The Whigs advocated national economic development favorable to industry andcommerce but generally opposed radical measures that would antagonize theSouth. Furthermore, theJacksonians defended rotation in office as a solvent to entrenched elitism. But an analysis ofthe political and economic forces driving antebellum America, defined asthe period from 1776 to 1861 when the Civil War began, tells a differentstory. Recent historians have analyzed these changes in terms of a marketrevolution (Wilentz 582). Antebellum America as an Egalitarian Society INTRODUCTION It is generally believed that, following the Declaration ofIndependence in 1776, the American Revolution and the drafting of theUnited States Constitution in 1789, the United States was forged as a free-market capitalist democracy that offered equality of opportunity to all itscitizens. While most Americans tend tobelieve that capitalism arrived in America with the Pilgrims, some Southernhistorians point to the "pre-bourgeois" character of plantation life andthe limited market attachment of the white yeomanry in the West (The NewRepublic 34). Jacksonian Democracy proposed a social vision in which any white manwould have the chance to secure his economic independence and would be freeto live as he saw fit under a system of laws and representative governmentutterly cleansed of privilege (Wilentz 582). On the otherhand, the small farmers hated the high interest rates and low pricesoffered by the merchant and banking classes. His supporters inCongress forced through a "gag rule" that barred the mere consideration ofantislavery petitions (IWB 2 ). With theextension of the right of suffrage, however, the property owning classestended increasingly to conceal their real aims from the masses by means ofpolitical campaigns that stressed personalities rather than program(Altschuler & Blumin 855). Proponents of a central banking system believed that a strongbanking system and plentiful credit would speed economic development byproviding the large concentrations of capital needed to fund road buildingand encourage trade and industry. They advocated that this struggle was the foundation for the majorproblems of the day, as the "associated wealth of America sought to augmentits domination" (Wilentz 582). The five Friendly Tribes, who had already signed treatieswith the United States to occupy the land on which they lived, were thenforcibly removed to the Indian Territory in a "Trail of Tears" that costthousands of Indians their lives. In particular, reformers in the olderstates fought to lower or abolish property requirements for voting andoffice holding in an attempt to equalize representation (Wilentz 582). However, such ideals were still viewed as applyingonly to white men (Wilentz 582). Jackson offered the public the weapons ofequal rights and limited government to ensure that the already wealthy andfavored classes would not enrich themselves further by commandeering,enlarging, and then plundering public institutions (Wilentz 582). Online: http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/nvsageh/Hist121/Part3/AgeofJackson.htm."The Ambiguous Democracy in America, 18 -1848." (October 2 ). An almost virulent pro-slavery platform, the subjugation andmistreatment of American Indians and the celebration of white supremacy(Wilentz 582) characterized Jacksonian Democracy. By denouncingthe moneyed aristocracy and proclaiming the common man, it helped topoliticize American life by broadening electoral participation to includean overwhelming majority of the electorate (Wilentz 582). Still, somehistorians note that Jackson, like most of his leading antagonists, was infact a wealthy man of conservative social beliefs (Britannica 2 ). Under Jackson,government-sponsored internal improvements generally fell into disfavor, onthe grounds that they were unnecessary expansions of centralized power,beneficial mainly to men with connections (Wilentz 582). Inaddition, a new generation of politicians broke with the old republicananimus against mass political parties. Suffrage was expanded as property andother restrictions on voting were reduced or abandoned in most states. And the combination of hisrugged personality and successful generalship in the military earned himthe nickname "Old Hickory" (Britannica 2 ). President Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson was elected to the presidency of the United States inthe election of 1828. The Missouri Compromise was an agreement by slave-owning states and non-slave-owning states that sanctioned slavery inMissouri on the condition that slavery would be barred in the remainingarea of the Louisiana Purchase above what is now the Arkansas-Missouriborder (IWB 2 ). But,significantly, this broad new democracy was based on a political culturepredicated squarely on white male equality. Jackson felt he had been denied the presidency dueto "a shady, last-minute backroom bargain" between Adams and Clay(Britannica 2 ). However,antebellum America was a society in which white supremacy was largely takenfor granted. However, the Missouri compromise merely inaugurated aperiod of growing tensions between Northern and Southern interests thatwould culminate in the War Between the States in 1861 (IWB 2 ). Under theseconditions the Southern slaveholders and northern commercial andmanufacturing interests could no longer rule in the old way (Altschuler &Blumin 855). In essence, the elitist republic of theRevolutionary generation was about to be supplanted by the "Jacksoniandemocracy," in which ordinary (white male) Americans would garner politicaland economic power despite the protests of the fading social and politicalRevolutionary elites ("Ambiguous Democracy" 2 ). And in the West,the seizure of lands from Native Americans and mixed-blood Hispanics openedup fresh areas for white settlement, cultivation and speculation (Wilentz592). Clearly, then, not everyone benefited from the market revolution,least of all those nonwhites for whom Wilentz calls it "an unmitigateddisaster." Jacksonianism would grow from the tensions generated by themarket revolution within white society as mortgaged farmers, an emergingproletariat in the Northeast, non-slaveholders in the South and tenants andyeomen in the West all began to realize that the spread of commerce andcapitalism brought them only new forms of economic dependence rather thanpersonal independence (Wilentz 582). AlthoughAdams won the 1824 showdown, political, social and economic forces thatwould pass the torch to a generation of Americans who either experiencedthe Revolution as children or were born in the first years of independencewere already in motion. However, one could almost argue that the impetus forthe Jacksonian Democracy came in the prior election, in 1824. As a result, hesucceeded in shutting down the bank over the bitter opposition of Northerncapitalists (IWB 2 ). On the other hand, Westerners called formore and cheaper land and for relief from creditors, speculators, andbankers, including, above all, the hated Second Bank of the United States(Wilentz 582). Opponentswho branded him an enemy of property and order added to the belief thatJackson stood for the poor against the rich and the plain people againstthe wealthy interests (IWB 2 ). And it is true that the United States was founded on theprinciples of individual freedom and democratic ideals. While today we accept thenotion that democracy means that every citizen has a vote, with certainreasonable restrictions such as age, registration requirements and so on,in the early 18 s it was generally accepted that in order to vote, aperson needed to have a legal stake in the system, which could meanproperty ownership or some economic equivalent (Altschuler & Blumin 855). Works CitedAltschuler, Glenn C. Now, local and state offices that had earlierbeen appointive became elective. Thus, although the period leading up to the Civil War wascharacterized by an expansion of democracy within America's borders, thatexpansion was not extended to either women or people of color. But one effectwas a deepening in the disparities of power and prestige between thenortheastern moneyed elites and the "working man." Many financiallydependent Americans began to question the success of this apparent marketrevolution. "John Marshall has made his decision," Jackson said, referringto the chief justice, "now let him enforce it" (IWB 2 ). Urban workers formed labormovements and demanded political reforms and Southerners sought lowtariffs, greater respect for states' rights, and a return to strictconstructionism (Wilentz 582). Online: http://www.orangeschools.org/ohs/teachers/TJordan/Pages/apambiguousdemo cracy.html."The Original Outsider -- The Market Revolution: Jacksonian." The New Republic (June 1992): 34.Wilentz, Sean. In fact,the freedom of such groups was severely limited as a result of thedemocratic policies of the Jacksonian era. Thus, even though reforms during Jackson's presidency repealedproperty qualifications for voting and holding office, they imposed racialqualifications that disenfranchised African-Americans and preserved bars towomen suffrage ("Ambiguous Democracy" 2 ). And as tensions between Northand South escalated, President Andrew Jackson and his supportersdemonstrated a virulent pro-slavery platform and a solid defense of whitesupremacy. And when the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates ruled that his Indian removal policy was unconstitutional, Jacksonignored it. And it would specifically pit thesegroups and the rising entrepreneurs against the older elites, whom theysuspected would try to block the economic development to suit themselves(Wilentz 582). Per capita nationalproduct among non-slaves rose dramatically but only among a relatively fewfamilies of established wealth. Such wealth-based socialstratification inevitably led to economic stratification and socialconflict. In some Northern statesJackson Democrats were the leading advocates of so-called "black laws"curtailing civil rights (IWB 2 ). Inevitably, the availabilityof wage-paying jobs as a result of the success of Northern commerce andindustry created a large class of wage workers who shared little in theprosperity generated by their labor (IWB 2 ). By 1845 the richest 4 fourpercent owned 81 percent of the wealth in that city. Thus, in the Northeast and Old Northwest, rapidtransportation improvements and immigration hastened the replacement of theold yeoman and artisan economy with cash-crop agriculture and capitalistmanufacturing. Proposed cures included more democracy and aredirection of economic policy. For example, Jackson spearheaded the attempt to crush theantislavery movement that stirred to life in the 183 s. The war onthe Second Bank of the United States and subsequent hard-money initiativesset the tone -- an unyielding effort to remove the hands of a few wealthy,unelected private bankers from the levers of the nation's economy. In fact, Jackson formed the Democratic Party as it is knowntoday. The term JacksonianDemocracy in the strictest sense refers simply to the ascendancy of AndrewJackson and the Democratic Party after Jackson's election to the presidencyin 1828. Jackson was born in South Carolina in 1767. 5 The Subjugation of the American Indians The claim that the election of Jackson represented a triumph ofdemocratic enlightenment is further refuted by his administration's policytoward Native Americans (Wilentz 582). However, almost all historians agree that, as economic tensionsescalated during the market revolution of the early 18 s, politicalengagement became both widespread and deeply felt within the electorate(Altschuler & Blumin 855). "Limits of Political Engagement in Antebellum America: A New Look at the Golden Age of Participatory Democracy." The Journal of American History (December 1997): 855-885.[IWB] "Andrew Jackson and the Origins of the Democratic Party." International Workers Bulletin (July 2 ), Online: http://www.wsws.org/public_html/prioriss/iwb9-23/andre.htm."Jacksonian Democracy: The Democratization of Politics." Britannica.com (2 ), Online: http://www.britannica.com."The Age of Jacksonian Democracy." (September 2 ). Thus, historians treat early American economic development as atransition to capitalism rather than as the unleashing of a pre-existingcapitalist economy (The New Republic 34). He also became a wealthy planter. AntebellumAmerica was not an entirely egalitarian society to one viewing it from theglobalized, multicultural 21st century. According to the Jacksonians, all of human history had involved astruggle between the few and the many, instigated by a greedy minority ofwealth and privilege that hoped to exploit the vast majority (Wilentz 582). This paper will argue that the true story of antebellum America isnot one of an immediately egalitarian society but rather one of atransition from a politically elitist society dominated by the power ofinherited wealth to an emerging capitalist democracy that still had notrealized its full potential either at the start or the end of the WarBetween the States. Moreover, conventions of elected delegates increasinglyreplaced legislative or congressional caucuses as the agencies for makingparty nominations (Britannica 2 ). Political hegemony by Jacksonian democrats followed what could beconsidered the most significant market revolution in the history of theUnited States. But it wasn't just the cities. The article notessimilar social stratification in Boston, Philadelphia and the major citiesof the South and Midwest (IWB 2 ). This is significant because thetransition of America's economic system to free-market capitalism would beparalleled by the expansion of democracy within her borders. Generally, the political dominance of the Revolutionary generation isgenerally believed to have declined following the disputed presidentialelection of 1824 between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Wilentz argues that by the 182 s, these tensions fed into a many-sidedcrisis of political faith. & Blumin, Stuart, M. Jackson's election in1828 coincided with the sharpening of the conflict between the emergingcapitalism of the North and the slave economy of the South (IWB 2 ).After the War of 1812, slavery had expanded rapidly into the newly openedSouthwest. Andrew Jackson forged a democratic ideology aimed primarily at voterswho felt injured by or cut off from the market revolution (Wilentz 582).He contended that no democracy could survive without a citizenry ofeconomically independent men. Andin the West, historians studying the settlement of Michigan noted that thedistribution of wealth "scarcely support[ed] the typical American image ofthe frontier as the land of promise for the poor, ambitious young man" (IWB2 ). THE MARKET REVOLUTION Today, many historians contend that antebellum America was far frombeing the egalitarian society touted by writers such as Alexis DeTocqueville in his book Democracy in America, which described politicallife in America under the presidency of Andrew Jackson. His lavishplantation, "the Hermitage" near Nashville, Tennessee, epitomized thearistocratic slave-owner lifestyle (IWB 2 ). The 1824election was the last election in United States history in which theelectoral college did not decide the result. B. None of the threepresidential candidates -- Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay-- won a majority of votes in the electoral college, so the decision as towho would assumed the presidency fell to the House of Representatives,which decided in favor of Adams even though Jackson had won the popularvote ("The Age" 2 ). Many of those who would later unite to form the Republican Party,including Abraham Lincoln, began their political careers as Whigs (IWB2 ). TheSecond Bank of the United States was the central national bank establishedby Congress in 1816 to promote a stable system of currency and credit. 1 The Presidential Elections of 1828 The presidential elections of 1828 marked a watershed in US politics.The popular vote for president surpassed the one million mark for the firsttime, more than three times the 1824 total (Altschuler & Blumin 855). The result was that "the generation of 182 and its childrenexperienced American history's sharpest rise in the permanent inequality ofconditions and aristocracy" (The New Republic 34). SUMMARY & CONCLUSION It took a market revolution between the forces of a subsistence-basedrural economy and a growing capitalist industrial economy in the North toforge the beginnings of true democracy in antebellum America. The Expansion of Democracy The expansion of democracy during the decades preceding the Civil Warhas long been a central theme of American historical literature, and inrecent years political historians have vastly increased our knowledge ofemerging democratic institutions and processes by examining the partisanbattles of that era (Altschuler & Blumin 855). Thus, Jackson believed that the people's will andwelfare were being thwarted by "an interlocking network of bankers andcorrupt politicians" and after he gained the White House in 1828, he wasprepared to clean house (Britannica 2 ). Only days after he was inauguratedin 1828, Jackson publicly pledged to drive the American Indians from theirancestral lands in the East to open these areas to the cotton planters(IWB, 2 ). As alawyer and man of affairs in Tennessee before his accession to thepresidency, he aligned himself with the influential creditors rather thanthe have-not debtors. Inthe countryside and small towns in the East, the "richest 1 percent of thepopulation probably owned almost 9 percent of the wealth" (IWB 2 ). And the widening gap between an imagined Jeffersoniandemocratic commerce and what the world would eventually learn to callcapitalism quickly affected politics (The New Republic 34). Nonetheless, the reforms implemented during thisperiod and the greater availability of political involvement to manyAmerican citizens does place Jacksonian Democracy as an authenticdemocratic movement "dedicated to powerful, at times radical, egalitarianideals" (Wilentz 582). THE AGE OF JACKSON A. But to many in 1828, Jackson was the embodiment ofpopular democracy (IWB 2 ). His biographers note thathe rose from poverty to become a military hero; he achieved national fameduring the War of 1812 by defeating the Creek Indians at the battle ofHorseshoe Bend in Alabama and routing the British at the battle of NewOrleans (Britannica, 2 ). The rise of the industrial North and East led to the increased powerof banking institutions and the courts redefined corporation and propertylaws to aid these new enterprises (The New Republic 34). ButJackson's political crusade against the Second Bank was consistent with hisdefense of slavery and his attempt to channel behind the slaveocracy thepopular sentiment that existed against the Northern industrialists (IWB2 ). Many Americansbelieved they had fought a revolution to break the old aristocratic linkbetween political privilege and economic power (The New Republic 34). And some states also experimented withlaws abolishing or cutting back the old common-law doctrine of coverture,under which a married woman's legal identity and property merged with thatof her husband ("Ambiguous Democracy" 2 ).4 The Battle Against the Second US Bank The Jacksonians' basic policy thrust, both in Washington and in thestates, was to rid government of class biases and dismantle the top-down,credit-driven engines of the market revolution (Wilentz 582). This was contrary to the hopes of many anti-slavery forces,which had hoped that slavery would not migrate to the new territories inthe West and thus would gradually disappear from the country as a whole.However, the spread of slavery west of the Mississippi River and theresulting creation of new slave states now threatened to give the slave-owning planters an unbreakable hold on political power, with the non-slaveholding North as a political minority (See IWB 2 ). For example, an article in the WorldPolicy Journal titled "Reflections on Inequality" (Winter 1995/96), arguesthat in 1828 the richest 4 percent of New York City residents owned 63percent of all the wealth in that metropolis. Thisreflected both an increase in the number of eligible voters and a higherparticipation rate. Consequently,the North forced a decision in 182 over the admission of the territory ofMissouri to the Union. Thus, to his followers, Jackson embodied the spirit of the self-mademan so attractive in a burgeoning capitalist democracy. In the South, the cotton boom revived the slave economy,which now spread to occupy the best lands of the region. 2 Jacksonian Democracy Sean Wilentz describes the Jacksonian concept of democracy as "anambiguous, controversial concept" (Wilentz 582). In the early years of US politics, with the right to voteseverely restricted by property requirements and other stipulations, debatehad tended to be frank and candid (Altschuler & Blumin 855). Undoubtedly, Americans engaged in capitalist enterprisebefore 182 , but it is not clear that capitalism was the ruling economicsystem in the United States. 3 White Male Supremacy Jacksonian Democracy was not for everybody. Recently, social historians have begun to consider thehistory of capitalism in the United States. In fact,historians maintain that, from its beginning, the American republic was aland carved into social strata (IWB 2 ). However, Jacksonian Democracy didin fact advance the democratization of American politics. TheJacksonian era was characterized by broader public political involvementthan had been the case before Jackson's presidency. For example, many scholars focusing on thecolonial and early national rural North have outlined a subsistence worldlargely governed not by family inheritance, barter exchange and householdproduction rather than by profit-oriented market individualism (The NewRepublic 34). His supporters saw a self-made man of willand courage whose nearly uncontrollable temper was merely a sign of hisinability to tolerate elitism and other non-democratic ideas. He argued that the insidious credit termsoffered by such a system would benefit only the "manufacturing monopolies"run by the Northern industrialists, the "Money Power." He addressed hisappeals to the anger felt by workers and small farmers over the gap betweenthe egalitarian promise of the American Revolution and the social realityof a stratified class-system based on economic wealth. In fact, some scholarshave even dismissed the phrase "Jacksonian Democracy" as a contradiction interms (Wilentz 582). And over the next decade and a half, disparate strands ofdiscontent would unite around Andrew Jackson (The New Republic 34). And its contrast as the "party of the people" with the RepublicanParty as the "party of the wealthy" can essentially be dated back to theJacksonian era. "Jacksonian Democracy." The Reader's Companion to American History (1991): 582-587. However, Jackson perceived that such development would come at theexpense of the slave-owners. And during his presidency, the countryunderwent an entire range of democratic reforms -- from expanding thesuffrage to restructuring federal institutions (Wilentz 582). Yet,as a new generation of "self-described nationalist republicans" assumedpower after 1815, elitism and corruption seemed to continue unabated.Viewing politics as the source of all social and economic disorder,Americans began to look to politics for a solution. For example, slave-owners, small farmers and the working classestended to conflict with northern merchants and industrialists (IWB 2 ).Slave-owners often feared that the northern capitalists' growing powerthreatened their own political domination and economic unity. When abolitionistWilliam Lloyd Garrison began publication of the first abolitionistnewspaper, The Liberator, in Boston in 1831, Jackson intervened to bar thedistribution of abolitionist literature through the mail (IWB 2 ).Jackson also demanded that the names of Southerners receiving this"inflammatory mail" be made available to the public and he declared thatthey "should atone with their lives" (IWB 2 ). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.