History

WHIGS, DEMOCRATS, AND KNOW-NOTHINGS Jackson’s political opponents, unit- ed by little more than a common opposition to him, eventually co- alesced into a common party called the Whigs, a British term signify- ing opposition to Jackson’s “monar- chial rule .” Although they organized soon after the election campaign of 1832, it was more than a […]

THE BANK FIGHT Although the nullification crisis possessed the seeds of civil war, it was not as critical a political issue as a bitter struggle over the contin- ued existence of the nation’s central bank, the second Bank of the United States . The first bank, established in 1791 under Alexander Hamilton’s guidance, had been

NULLIFICATION CRISIS Toward the end of his first term in office, Jackson was forced to con- front the state of South Carolina, the most important of the emerg- ing Deep South cotton states, on the issue of the protective tariff . Busi- ness and farming interests in the state had hoped that the president would

FACTIONALISM AND POLITICAL PARTIES Domestically, the presidency of Monroe (1817-1825) was termed the “era of good feelings .” The phrase ac- knowledged the political triumph of the Republican Party over the Feder- alist Party, which had collapsed as a national force . All the same, this was a period of vigorous factional and re- gional

LATIN AMERICA AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE During the opening decades of the 19th century, Central and South America turned to revolution . The idea of liberty had stirred the people of Latin America from the time the English colonies gained their free- dom . Napoleon’s conquest of Spain and Portugal in 1808 provided the signal

EXTENSION OF SLAVERY Slavery, which up to now had re- ceived little public attention, began to assume much greater importance as a national issue . In the early years of the republic, when the Northern states were providing for immedi- ate or gradual emancipation of the slaves, many leaders had supposed that slavery would die

WESTWARD EXPANSION AND REGIONAL DIFFERENCES “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” Newspaper editor Horace Greeley, 1851 OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY 113 ed a national system of roads and canals to link them with Eastern cit- ies and ports, and to open frontier lands for settlement . However, they were unsuccessful in

BUILDING UNITY The War of 1812 was, in a sense, a second war of independence that confirmed once and for all the American break with England . With its conclusion, many of the serious difficulties that the young republic had faced since the Revolution dis- appeared . National union under the Constitution brought a balance

Transforming a nation The United States transformed itself again in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A rural, agricultural nation became an industrial power whose backbone was steel and coal, railroads, and steam power. A young country once bound by the Mississippi River expanded across the North American continent, and on to overseas territories. A

THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING In the Appalachian region, the revival took on characteristics similar to the Great Awakening of the previous century. But here, the center of the revival was the camp meeting, a religious service of several days’ length, for a group that was obliged to take shelter on the spot because of the