Monroe and John Quincy Adams

Unfinished Business Generally: (true for all six presidents)

1. Not only is slavery not ended, but the number of slaves in South increases at an unbelievable rate End of Rev = 600,00 slaves Beg of Civil War = 3.5 million slaves 2. American “land grab” in West Land taken from Native Americans Later, land taken from Mexico 3. Political right of voting not given to all white men (regardless of education, wealth and property) until Andrew Jackson – seventh president 4. Presidential power held by Virginians (Virginia Dynasty) and John Adams/John Quincy Adams – two New Englanders other regions in U.S. – West, North, South other than Virginia do not gain presidential power 5. No rights for free African-Americans or women Constitutional rights given only to elite white men

James Monroe

Most important because of foreign policy:

a. Acquires Florida and established boundaries of Louisiana (1819) Adam-Onis Treaty (brokered by John Quincy Adams) b. Monroe Doctrine – ends intervention in U.S. by Europeans

Domestic Policy:

a. Era of Good Feelings Monroe tries to lessen the partisanship of previous administrations b. Missouri Compromise Maine enters as free state: Missouri as slave state pres. Undermined by increasing sectionalism over slavery c. President during first serious economic recession in U.S. history (Panic of 1819) – does little to solve this

Pres. During increasing nationalist sentiment in U.S. (true for presidents from #5 to Lincoln)

Economic And Social History, 1820s-1840s westward expansion and economic development + nationalist fervor Expansion and Migration a dramatic westward surge of settlers had to be encouraged. Extending the Boundaries When John Quincy Adams hammered out the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 with Spain “mountain men” were popularized. Manifest Destiny

Settlement to the Mississippi

The People and Culture of the Frontier. A Revolution in Transportation Political leaders realized the importance of linking these distant citizens with the rest of the nation through a viable transportation network. Roads and Steamboats The National (or Cumberland) Road was the first of the overland toll roads. Chartered by the states, these “turnpikes” failed, for the most part, to meet the need for cheap transportation over great distances. America's river network proved to be more efficient, and the Ohio-Mississippi system beckoned first the flatboat trade and, after Robert Fulton's invention in 1807, the steamboat. The Canal Boom

Emergence of a Market Economy Transportation improvements provoked increases in farm income and instigated commercial agriculture to take hold of the nation’s economy, further pulling the country into the web of a global, market economy.

The Beginning of Commercial Agriculture Increasing farm productivity promoted the transition from subsistent diversification farming to profit-oriented staple farming. The availability of good farmland, increasing demand for cotton, the invention of the cotton gin, and slave labor made the South the world’s greatest cotton producer.

Early Industrialism The surge of a market economy encouraged new industrial development. The nation’s first factory system emerged in New England’s textile industry. The U.S.’s infant industries before the 1840s, however, developed less dramatically than in European regions; as late as 1840, only 8.8 percent of the nation’s population labored in factories. The Politics of Nation Building A cohesive nationalist sentiment united the U.S. following the War of 1812. This spirit quelled the combatant political rhetoric that dominated the nation’s early political discussions, provoking many to proclaim the period an “era of good feelings.”

Henry Clay called for an “American System” of protective tariffs and financed internal improvements

Pres. John Quincy Adams

OVERALL: not a bad president, but ineffective; hated by supporters of A. Jackson – fails to make a positive connection with many citizens – never able to use Jackson’s ‘democratic rhetoric’; Congress voted against all but one of his legislative efforts

In 1824 Adams won bitter four-cornered presidential contest

a. behind Andrew Jackson – Jackson campaigns against JQA aggressively after JQA becomes president; creates a lot of hostility against JQA b. resolved in Adams's favor in the House of Representatives with Henry Clay

Adams's subsequent choice of Clay as secretary of state raised a cry of "corrupt bargain”

he was unable to carry out his nationalist program.

proposals for different policies fail in face of Congressional anger (Federal internal improvements, a uniform bankruptcy law, federally supported educational and scientific institutions, and the creation of a department of the interior).

tnly success w/ Congress is the appointment in 1826 of two delegates to attend the Panama Congress, arranged by Simón Bolívar.

committed to a protectionist policy, Adams signed the Tariff of Abominations (engineered by the Jacksonians in 1828), although it was certain to alienate the South and displease New Englanders, whose manufactures were not granted additional protection.

alienated much Southern and Western opinion by his efforts to protect the interests of the Cherokees in Georgia

Jackson – and some of press – portray JQA as an aristocrat hostile to the interests of the "common man”; loses to Jackson

JQA - The Congressman

At the end of his presidency, his retirement was brief.

1831 elected to the House of Rep for eight successive terms until his death.

generally associated with the Whigs, he pursued an independent course.

drafted tariff bills

approved Jackson's stand on nullification, but he considered the compromise tariff of 1833an excessive concession to the nullifiers.

After 1835 identified with the antislavery cause, although he was not an abolitionist.

revoke the gag rule that required the tabling of all petitions relating to slavery.

nationalist

advocate internal improvements

battled to save the Bank of the United States