4.8

• The Democratic Republicans were the only major political party in America, and within that party, two rival factions began to form: the National Republicans and the Democrats
• By the 1820s to the 1830s, the rival factions hardened up into proper political parties: the Democrats and the Whigs
• Democrats

  Led by Andrew Jackson, drew their values from the old Democratic Republicans in the image of Thomas Jefferson, valued limited power in the federal government, free trade, local rule, despised corporate monopolies, high tariffs, and the national bank
• Whigs

  Led by Henry Clay, smelled more like the Federalist Party in the image of Alexander Hamilton, valued a more vigorous and involved central government, policies like a provision for a national bank, protective tariffs, and federally funded internal improvements, had a main beef with crimes being committed by immigrants
• The most contentious debate between the Democrats and Whigs was the argument over the role of federal power
• Debates over the role of federal power

  • Tariffs
  • National bank
  • Internal improvements
• Tariff

  A tax on imported goods, a protective tariff raises prices on foreign made goods so that domestically made goods and industries are more desirable and protected
• The Tariff of 1828 raised duties on imports by 35-45%, which was beneficial to northern manufacturers and western farmers but disadvantaged Southerners who relied more heavily on imported goods
• Doctrine of nullification

  Calhoun's argument that if a state judged a federal law to be unconstitutional, that state could pretend like it didn't exist and nullify it
• Jackson responded to South Carolina's threat to secede over the tariff

  By persuading Congress to pass a Force Bill giving him authority to respond with military action
• The Second Bank of the United States was established in 1816 and stabilized the economy in the 1820s, but in the 1830s several state banks had to close their doors because they were unable to make payments to the national bank
• Jackson's view of the national bank

  He believed it was unconstitutional and served to prop up the wealthy and do great harm to the lower classes
• In 1832, Henry Clay persuaded Congress to pass a bill to recharter the national bank, which Jackson vetoed, calling it a "hydra of corruption"
• The fight over internal improvements divided those with Whig sensibilities, who thought such expenditures were necessary, and those with Jacksonian sensibilities, who saw them as federal overreach and unconstitutional
• The Indian Removal Act of 1830 mandated that all Indians be relocated west of the Mississippi River in the Oklahoma Territory
• The Cherokee nation challenged the constitutionality of their removal in the Supreme Court in Worcester v Georgia, and the Supreme Court sided with the Cherokees, arguing that Georgia had no right to impose state laws within Cherokee boundaries because those lands enjoyed federal protection
• In 1835, a small delegation of Cherokee Indians met with U.S. officials without tribal sanction, resulting in the Treaty of New Echota which officially exchanged Cherokee lands in the east for reservation territory west of the Mississippi
• The forcible removal of the Cherokees and other tribes began in 1838, along what became known as the Trail of Tears, due to the great sickness and dying that occurred along the journey
• Some Indians, especially Cherokees, resisted removal either violently or by hiding, and eventually settled on a reservation in the western portion of North Carolina, becoming the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians