# History of the United States (1789–1849)

U.S. flag in 1849
 (30 stars representing 30 states)
The **history of the United States (1789–1849)**, sometimes called the **Antebellum Period**, is the history beginning with the presidency of George Washington and ending just before the American Civil War. The first government, formed under the Articles of Confederation, had ended and a new government based on the United States Constitution began.

In the early 19th century, the country went though a number of dramatic changes. The country expanded its borders, cities became industrial centers and the economy grew. Sections of the United States developed differently, which led to conflicts and eventually up a civil war.

## Federalist Era

This is the period from 1789 to about 1801, when the Federalist Party controlled the American government.

In 1789, George Washington was elected the first president of the United States. The Constitution gives only a vague outline of what a president should do. Washington defined the position of president and left office after two terms. During Washington's term, the Whiskey Rebellion happened since country farmers tried to stop the federal government from collecting taxes on whiskey. In 1795, Congress passed the Jay Treaty, which allowed for increased trade with Great Britain in exchange for the British giving up their forts on the Great Lakes. However, Britain still interfered with the Americans such as impressment (forcing American sailors into the Royal Navy).

John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1796 to become the second president of the United States. That was the first American election that was between two political parties. Under Adams, the United States Navy was created on April 30, 1798. It replaced the earlier Continental Navy, which had been disbanded by 1785. By the end of 1798, the Navy had 14 ships, and more were being built. Adams pushed for and signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts.

In the election of 1800, Jefferson defeated Adams. One of the most important things that he did as president was the Louisiana Purchase from France, which doubled the area of the United States. By 1800, there were 24 treaties that had been signed with a total of nine European powers.

## Jeffersonian period

This is the period from 1800 to 1815, which includes the administrations of two Democratic-Republican Party presidents: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They are commonly called Jeffersonian Republicans. During this time the country nearly doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase from France. This, in turn, was one of the causes behind the War of 1812, when Britain attempted to reclaim her former American colonies.

## Era of Good Feelings

In 1816, the Federalist Party's candidate, Rufus King, ran against the Democratic-Republican candidate James Monroe, who received 183 electoral votes to King's 34. That was the last time the Federalist Party ran a candidate. The election of 1818 gave the Democratic-Republicans a majority of 85% in Congress. Monroe served for two terms from 1817 to 1825.

The dominance of one political party made this often called the "Era of Good Feelings," but the party had become deeply divided by then. Many of the Federalist policies of Alexander Hamilton were kept, and Monroe continued many of Madison's economic policies of Madison. Three in particular were a national bank, protective tariffs, and federal funding of infrastructure.

## Two-party system

The one-party Era of Good Feelings system of co-operation between politicians lasted only about a decade. It was replaced by a new two-party system, which has mostly continued ever since then. Political parties took on the job of building coalitions between many different groups with different interests. This new system broke away from the patronage system, based on personal loyalties. The Founding Fathers of the United States had never imagined a system based on political parties, but by the 1830s, politcal parties had become the main system of American politics.

The presidential election of 1824 had no Federalist Party candidate. There were five candidates, with Andrew Jackson winning the electoral college with 99 votes. Second to Jackson was John Quincy Adams with 84 votes, and third was William H. Crawford, who received 41 votes. Because nobody received a clear majority of electoral votes, the Twelfth Amendment caused the decision to be by the House of Representatives.

The Speaker of the House was Henry Clay, another of the five candidates for president in 1824. Although the legislature of Kentucky, his state, had instructed him to vote for Jackson, Clay formed a coalition to elect Adams as president. On the first vote, Adams won the majority of votes.

At first, Jackson accepted the decision gracefully, but after Adams became president, he appointed Clay as Secretary of State. That brought cries of a "corrupt bargain" between Clay and Adams. Jackson's 1828 political campaign to end government corruption began immediately afterwards and made sure that Adams would be a one-term president.

## Jacksonian democracy

Jackson was finally elected president in 1828. He got nearly 70% of the electoral votes and over 60% participation in his election. That was largely because of Jackson's popularity as "Old Hickory" and the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. His military career had included service in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Seminole Wars. Jackson also benefited from the perceived "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay to expand his political base.

During his presidency, Jackson founded the party that began calling itself the "American Democracy." Changes in the electoral rules and political campaigns also contributed towards the feeling the country was becoming more democratic than it had been until then. For both reasons, the era was called Jacksonian democracy. The period itself lasted from 1828 to the 1840s, but its influence lasted much longer. It was a period of democratic reforms in voting and changes to the structure of the federal government. Some historians see it as a contradiction in terms since it also defended slavery, the pushing of Native Americans to tyhe west, and white supremacy. Jackson's economic policies during his two terms were best described as *laissez-faire*.

### Democratic Party

Jackson's Democratic Party stood for a smaller federal government, which did not involve itself in the economy or in regulating business. It opposed religious intrusion into government, especially in the forms of temperance, abolitionism, and officially keeping the Sabbath. Jackson and his Democrats wanted to keep government spending to a minimum.

The Democrats, under Jackson and his successor, Martin Van Buren, became much better organized. They created a structure of local, state and national branches which controlled organizing membership as well as their caucuses and political conventions. They popularly claimed to be a grassroots party but were in fact controlled from Washington, D.C. They represented themselves as defending the common man against the "aristocrats" of the Whig Party. They started a spoils system of rewarding party loyalty with government jobs. After the War of 1812, state constitutional changes allowed more men to vote by erasing requirements to own property. By Jackson's presidency, nearly all white men could vote.

In 1812, only half of the states chose their electors in a presidential election by popular vote. By 1832, all states except South Carolina had begun to choose their presidential electors by popular vote. The Democrats were quick to take advantage of those changes.

### Nullification Crisis

The Jacksonian Democrats fought to end the Second Bank of the United States. They wanted to remove the political influence of bankers on the national economy. They helped farmers and planters by taking away the lands of Native Americans and making cheap land available for settlers. However, that did not get them the support of all planters in the South. Mostly centered on South Carolina, some thought the Jacksonian egalitarianism might threaten the institution of slavery itself, which led to the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833. Farmers and planters had hoped that when Jackson was elected, he would reduce the unpopular tariffs, which benefited manufacturers in the North and hurt the economy of the South. South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Nullification, which declared the federal tariffs of 1828 and 1838 illegal within the borders of the state. The state also began to raise funds for a military to defend itself.

In November 1832, Jackson sent a fleet of seven navy ships and one warship to Charleston. He called the state act "insurrection and treason." While other states in the South may have sympathized with South Carolina, they called the state's actions unconstitutional. South Carolina finally gave in and removed its objections to the tariff. In exchange, Henry Clay got a bill passed in 1833 by Congress that reduced tariffs in stages if they were over 20%. In the end, South Carolina had thus shown that it could force its will on Congress by resisting a federal law.

## Social reforms

A number of reform movements began during this period after 1815. The improved economy after the War of 1812 provided a new class of people, who had the time and financial resources to become involved in social movements. New technologies in printing increased the number of publications including those about subjects such as abolitionism. Better transportation meant lecturers could move from place to place more easily. A temperance movement began about 1819. A religious movement, sometimes called the Second Great Awakening, swept through the country during this time.

Common themes ran through most of those reform movements. One of the most important was the belief that people had the ability to decide between right and wrong. For example, slavery was wrong. The term "slave" was used to show anything that was held to be wrong in society. Drunkards were "slaves" to alcohol, workers were "slaves" to the factory owners, and women were "slaves" to men.

It was also common for those who believed in abolitionism to support also women's rights, religious reforms, and temperance. People were given to joining local organizations because there were no strong political leaders championing those causes and no national church organizations to lead them. Reform movements went around the political and religious systems, at least until the 1840s. The movements themselves, such as the abolitionists, were not completely unified and had internal disagreements over what should be done or how to go about it.

## Antebellum slavery

Slavery had ebcome mainly concentrated in the South by 1830. Slaves were used on small farms and large plantations. They were also used in towns as domestic workers and labor for various industries. Slaves were considered to be property because they were black. They were kept as slaves by the constant threat of violence. They were not allowed to forget they were slaves even though they lived with their masters. Many slaveowners genuinely cared about their slaves but never saw them as equals.

However, most Southerners did not own slaves. Most of them worked their own farms, but they curiously defended slavery as an institution. Many resented the wealth and power of the large plantation owners but at the same time kept the hope that they could join someday those ranks. Also, poor Southerners were looked down on by rich plantation owners but could themselves look down on blacks as an inferior group.

Cotton had become the largest cash crop. But plantations also grew corn, rice, sugarcane and tobacco. Slaves on plantations may have averaged 50 or less, but the largest plantations had hundreds of slaves. In addition to field work, slaves also were skilled in trades such as blacksmithing, carpentry, and mechanics. Domestic slaves did the cooking for the family, raised their children, and performed all of the work in the household. They were always supervised and had to work whenever they were not sleeping. Domestic slaves had virtually no privacy. Young white children formed close attachment to their black nannies, but as they grew up, they were educated as to how slaves were to be treated.

### Agrarian South

Art depicting a southern plantation
During this time period cotton plantations became very profitable in the South. Advances such as the cotton gin, the power loom, and the sewing machine created a demand for cotton, which was exported from the South to New England and to Britain.

Plantation owners needed more land and more slaves to grow more cotton. They were especially interested in expanding into new territories. They needed more slaves, and importing African slaves into the United States was banned, their prices went up. Small farmers found it profitable to sell their slaves to the large plantation owners. Wealth in the South often reflected how many slaves the planters owned. Slaves gave them political power and prestige.

### Industrial North

Boston Manufacturing Company, 1813-1816
The textile industry started the Industrial Revolution in the North. Other advances in manufacturing were in making paint, furniture, paper, and glass. Between 1814 and 1865, the American population grew by a factor of four. Manufacturing output grew twelve times, and the price of manufactured goods grew eight times during that period. Most of the growth was in New England.

Rivers provided power for mills. In Pennsylvania, coal and iron ore were mined. Agriculture remained an important industry in the North. Schools provided education and a literate supply of workers and inventors. Large ports and ships provided transportation to foreign markets. Also, railroads and water transportation such as the Erie Canal provided goods and services farther west. A steady supply of immigrants provided much of the labor force that ran the Northern industries.

During this period, a number of social movements, including abolitionism, began to have noticeable effects on society. In 1831, more radical forms of abolitionism emerged.

## U.S. presidents

* 1. George Washington
 (1789–1797)
* 2. John Adams
 (1797–1801)
* 3. Thomas Jefferson
 (1801–1809)
* 4. James Madison
 (1809–1817)
* 5. James Monroe
 (1817–1825)
* 6. John Quincy Adams
 (1825–1829)
* 7. Andrew Jackson
 (1829–1837)
* 8. Martin Van Buren
 (1837–1841)
* 9. William Henry Harrison
 (1841)
* 10. John Tyler
 (1841–1845)
* 11. James Polk
 (1845–1849)

## Other websites

* Antebellum America; YouTube
* The Jeffersonian Era; YouTube