APUSH Unit 4

Topic 4.2: The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson

-John Adams (1797-1800)

● Alien and Sedition Acts -> federalists lost popularity -> Thomas
Jefferson, a democratic republican, took office (had power in both
house and senate) -> shift of power to democratic republicans

-Thomas Jefferson (1801-1808):

● Maintained the national bank and lowered the national debt
● The Louisiana Purchase (Jefferson broke the law to purchase it!) ->
more land = agrarian (Before purchase: Lewis and Clark Expedition)
● Judicial impeachments
○ Attempt to impeach federalists failed and caused the judges to be

less partisan

-John Marshall
● Central government
● Judicial review

-James Madison
● Won election of 1808

-Tariffs on imports (both D & E and Federalists) -> raise revenue -> Debate:
North wanted high tariffs to protect their companies from competition; south
wanted low tariffs to encourage cotton trade

Topic 4.3: Politics and Regional Interests

-The era of good feelings (1816-1819)

● Nationalism, optimism, and goodwill
● James Monroe (1816-1824)
● Tariff of 1816 (protective tariff)
● Henry Clay’s American System
○ Actions
◆ Protective tariffs
◆ A national bank
◆ Internal improvements
○ Effects
◆ Economic growth -> chartered Second National Bank
● The Panic of 1819
○ Second national bank of U.S tighten credit -> state banks closed

-> depression
● Political changes
 ○ Federalist Party declined as it failed to adapt; democratic
republicans shift to federalist’s principles

-Western settlement and the Missouri Compromise

● Reasons for westward movement
○ Land, economic pressure, transportation
● The Missouri Compromise (temporarily subsided the slavery issue)
○ Admit Maine as a free state
○ Admit Missouri as slave-holding state

Topic 4.4: America on the World Stage

-Jefferson’s foreign policy
● Barbary pirates
● Challenges to U.S. Neutrality (Britain and France) -> Embargo Act
(1807) -> short term economic downfall for the U.S.

-President Madison’s foreign policy

● Nonintercourse act (1809)
○ U.S. trades with everyone except France and Britain
● Macon’s Bill NO.2 (1810)
○ Revival of U.S. trade with France and Britain

-The War of 1812

● Cause
○ Violation of U.S.’s rights
○ Troubles for land due to the British
○ War Hawks
● Division in opinion for the war
● No winner in war -> Treaty of Ghent
● Hartford convention
○ Federalists who were against war were weakened
● The war’s legacy
○ Federalist Party basically ended
○ Indians gave land to colonists (as British “abandoned” them)
○ British naval blockade limiting European goods -> U.S. factories

built and Americans moved toward industrial self-sufficiency

○ Greater feeling of nationalism

-Monroe and Foreign affairs

. U.S. gained Spanish Florida
. Monroe Doctrine: American continents are no longer colonized by any
European powers.
Topic 4.5: Market Revolution
-Development of Northwest: Agriculture
● Corn and wheat
-Transportation
● Roads (interstate ones were unusual)
● Canals (Erie Canal)
● Steam engines and steamboats
● Railroads

-Communication
● Telegraph

-Growth of industry (mid 19th century)

● U.S. manufacturing was the world leader and surpassed agriculture in
value
● Causes
○ Mechanical inventions: interchangeable parts
○ Factory system: expanded factory -> growth of banking and

insurance
○ Labor (Lowell system): more use of labor

-Commercial agriculture
● Switch to Cash crops
● Causes for the switch
○ Low prices of land = more land
○ Development of canals and railroads = transportation easier

-Cotton and the south

● Cotton gin -> cotton more profitable

Topic 4.6: Effects of the Market Revolution on Society and Culture

-Women: industrialized society -> new responsibilities as moral leaders
-Economic and social mobility
● Wages improved for workers, but the gap between the wealthy and the
poor increased
-Population growth and change:
● Population growth
● 1830s - 1850s: immigrants from Europe to Northern U.S. surged
● Causes
○ Inexpensive and relatively rapid ocean transportation
○ Famines and revolutions in Europe
○ More economic opportunities in the U.S. and personal freedom
● Urban life
○ Urban population grew but slums also increased
-Organized labor
● More manufacturing -> goods less expensive
● Organized labor
○ Protect the workers’ interests (ten-hour workday)

Topic 4.7: Expanding Democracy

-Great Equality
● The rise of a democratic society
○ Equality of opportunity for white males
● Politics of a common man
○ All White males could vote

-Changes to parties and campaigns

Topic 4.8: Jackson and Federal Power

-Jackson vs. Adams
● The Election of 1824: John Quincy Adams (who is a Federalist) made a
“corrupt bargain” (Henry Clay assisted John Quincy Adams)
● The Election of 1828: Andrew Jackson won over John Quincy Adams

-The Presidency of Andrew Jackson

● Andrew Jackson
○ Ordinary man
○ Democratic Republican
● Spoil System
○ Whoever helped Andrew Jackson will be guaranteed something in

return
● Favored the middle class
● Indian Removal Act (1830)
○ Cherokees forced to go away (because U.S. wanted gold) -> Trail

of Tears
● Nullification Crisis
○ Tariff of Abominations (1828)
◆ Favored the North but hurt the South (because of cotton and

exportation)
○ Nullification theory
◆ Each state had the right to decide whether to obey a federal

law or not
○ Proclamation to the People of South Carolina (issued by the

president)
◆ Nullification of tariff and disunion are treason
◇ Hurt John C. Calhoun’s (who is behind the nullification act)

interests
 ● Opposed anti-slavery
● Bank Veto
○ Denounced the national bank
● Texas
○ Independent from Mexico and appealed to American union ->

Andrew Jackson rejected

◆ Reasons
◇ Possible war with Mexico
◇ Imbalance of America (cuz Texas is a slave state)
○ Texas joined America on July 4, 1845)

-The Two-Party System

● The two parties
○ Democrats and Whigs (resembled Hamilton’s Federalist Party)
● 1832: Jackson destroyed the bank of the United States -> prices for
land and good became inflated -> The panic of 1837 (depression) ->
ended with the Tariff Compromise (Henry Clay)
● The Election of 1836
○ Martin Van Buren (democratic-republican) became president

● Van Buren and the Panic of 1837

○ Caused by Jackson’s opposition to rechartering the bank of the

United States
● The “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Campaign of 1840
○ John Tyler became president and defeated the Whigs

-The Western Frontier

● American Indians
○ Driven westward since Columbus
● The Frontier (1800-1850)
○ West: greater freedom for all ethnic groups
● White settlers on the western frontier
○ Work -> disease and malnutrition
○ Women performed in tasks such as doctors, teachers, and cooks
 ○ Environmental damage: soils, forests, and animals

Topic 4.9: The Development of American Culture

-Cultural nationalism
-A Changing Culture: Ideas, the Arts, and Literature
● Romanticism by Transcendentalists
○ Intuition, feelings, individual acts of heroism, and the study of

nature
● The Transcendentalists (Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David
Thoreau)
○ Against materialism; proposed that artistic expression > pursuit of

wealth
● Brook farm
○ Experiment with transcendentalist ideal -> led to other communal

experiments
● Arts and Literature
○ Painting: Genre painting (life of ordinary people)
○ Architecture: Greek-style buildings
○ Literature: more nationalistic

Topic 4.10: The Second Great Awakening (late 18th century — first half of
19th century)

Context: Reassertion of Calvinist (Puritan) teachings of original sin and

predestination and new developments in Christianity in the U.S.

-Causes of religious reform

● Growing emphasis on democracy and the individual affected how
people viewed religion
● Market revolution -> ppl feared that growing commercialization and
industrialization lead to increased greed and sin

-Revivals
● The Second Great Awakening began from Timothy Dwight (educated
person)
● Easily understood by the uneducated
● Advocation
○ Salvation for all through faith and hard work (1823)
● Baptists and Methodists
○ Largest Protestant denominations in the country (1850)

-New Denominations
● Millennialism
● Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Mormon Church
 ○ Christ's church was restored through Joseph Smith and is guided
by living prophets and apostles

-Reforms Backed by Religion

● Reform movements to reduce drinking, end slavery, and provide better
treatment for people with mental illness -> drove more reform
movements during the antebellum era.

Topic 4.11: An Age of Reform

Context: Antebellum period: period of reform movements

-Improving society
● American Temperance Society (1826)
○ Total abstinence: (1) Washingtonians (1840s, against alcohol) ->

1870s: (2) Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

● Movement for public asylums (1820s-1830s)
○ To alleviate the suffering of these individuals, reformers set up

state-supported prisons, mental hospitals, and poorhouses,

hoping that inmates would be cured as they are withdrawn from
squalid surroundings and treated to a disciplined pattern of life
● Public education (1828-1836)
○ Need of establishing free public schools for children

-Changes in families and roles for women

● Cult of domesticity
○ Women are moral leaders in the home
● Women increasing spoke out against discrimination for women
● Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
○ First women’s rights convention
○ Declaration of Sentiments
◆ Campaign for voting, legal, and property rights for women (by

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony)

◆ But: from 1850-1870, this issue was overshadowed by slavery.

-Antislavery Movement
● American colonization society
○ Attempt to transport people freed from slavery to an African colony

(1817) -> Didn’t work

● American Antislavery society
○ William Lloyd Garrison (1831) -> split in abolitionist movement (two

different approaches) -> Liberty party (1840)(Garrison excluded)

● Black abolitionists
○ Fredrick Douglass
 ● Violent abolitionism
○ Nat Turner

-Other reforms
● American Peace Society (1828): avoid war
● Advocates of dietary reforms: promote good digestion

Topic 4.12: African Americans in the Early Republic

-Free African Americans
● In the North: Free African Americans, but prejudice was still prevalent
● In the South: Enslaved African Americans who were often in danger of
being kidnapped by slave masters

-Resistance by the enslaved

● Restrained actions (work slowdowns)
● Runaways
● Rebellions

-More
● Westward expansion -> manifest destiny (god’s mission! Knowledge,
education, and technology) -> make Indians’ lives better!