White men now had universal manhood suffrage. The United States had achieved what many countries at this time could not achieve, but they were still lacking in guaranteeing political democracy for women, slaves, freed African Americans, Indians, and slaves. Philip Hone, a New York City businessman and Whig politician reported on a pro-slavery riot in Philadelphia on 1834 (DE). He made it clear that there was not political democracy with in Philadelphia in regards to the rights of African Americans. Harriet Martineau, a British author reported on her 1834 visit to the U.S. She believed that the U.S. was politically democratic and diversified (DD).
The strength of the economy encouraged Americans to take out more loans and buy more stocks, making them susceptible to future changes in the economy. The freedom caused financial markets to crash globally which helped power the Great Depression. Another example of lack of government intervention was the robber barons, a term referring to the wealthy and powerful businessmen in the 18th century. They were also known as “pure capitalists”, because they believed in an economic system that involved minimal interference from the government. Those working for robber barons were beaten and threatened, and the working conditions were terrible.
Jackson exercised the full extent of his presidential power during his presidency, which turned out to be a decisive tool in controlling congressional power. To increase trade within the country, Congress passed various tariffs on exports. The high tariff of manufactured goods reduced British exports to the U.S., which resulted in Britain buying less cotton. With the lack of British goods, the South was forced to buy more expensive products from the North. Because the South felt that the North was getting richer at their expense, John C. Calhoun, the vice-president and South Carolina native, created a nullification theory that argued for the states’ right to nullify a federal law it found unconstitutional.
However, some people, such as Jefferson and small farmers opposed his ideas, because they believed in states' rights and a strict interpretation of the constitution, which led to the split of two different political parties. Before Hamilton's plan, America was having financial problems. There were war debts that were unpaid and individual states and even Congress issued worthless paper money. Hamilton created a plan that would first pay down the national debt and then assume the debt of the states. This was called the Assumption Plan.
The Unequal Burden of Tax: Tax Reform and the Civil War The taxation of the South and its people were of varying degrees and severity. At the onset of Reconstruction, Northerners had little sympathy to Southern economic plight. With the progression of Reconstruction and a slow realization that the tax laws were not helping the South, but rather stunting it, Northern Congressmen sought to lift the burden of taxes from the South. Northern thought during the Reconstruction shifted greatly from punishing the South with excise taxes and tariffs to identifying with the South’s need of economic growth and stability. While there was no absolute even ground in the fairness of taxation in the rebellious states, Northerners realized their faults in tax legislation, thus developing a more lenient system capable of allowing the southern economy to strengthen and flourish.
Jacksonian Democracy AP History Essay by Emily Hoggatt Because of the blatant disregard of women's rights, the forced removal of Native Americans, and growth of slavery and racist ideas; the term 'Jacksonian Democracy' is an inaccurate reflection of the era between the years 1828-1848. Although it is true that universal manhood suffrage and the glorification of the common man grew in this era, I believe that the numerous undemocratic trends in this era outweigh the few democratic strides. The status of women's rights in the era termed Jacksonian Democracy was not impressive. Women, besides being denied suffrage, were also denied more basic rights such as ownership of property after marriage and the right to get divorced. Even though women had the right to vote for a short time in the state of New Jersey, the idea of letting women vote was seen as ridiculous by most of the population.
That created a new federal dimension of citizenship for all Americans, and sought to guarantee universal male suffrage. Once they were ratified, congress was constitutionally empowered and obligated to protest and enforce them, sustaining the broad new powers and active role of the government. The post war period began with a series of fairly lenient Reconstruction plans put forth by presidents Lincoln and Johnson, who were both eager to see former confederacy returned to the union with as much speed and as little vindictiveness as possible. As the ineffectiveness of Reconstruction became apparent in the face of blatant violations of the freed peoples constitutional rights and liberties, northern voters elected republicans to congress by a landslide, there providing a mandate for the republicans to take the job of putting the union back together again. They were deemed radical by subsequent historians because they insisted that blacks be protected in their new found rights.
Social Contract was one of the foundations of the American political system. Social contract is a belief that state exists only to serve the will of the people, and they are the source of all political power enjoyed by the state. (1) The first political thinker to come up with the idea of a social contract was Plato. After him, Thomas Hobbes expanded this idea in response to the Civil War in England. Further, John Locke and Rousseau took this theory a step ahead and made addition to it.
This leads on to another cause that led to the Chartism movement, the disappointment of the 1832 Reform Act. Leading up to the act, working classes had given massive support to the middle class led campaign for the act, with the hope of legislation to help them. Although it was passed by the Whigs, the working class were dissatisfied because it did not enfranchise them and they were still left without the vote. Whigs regarded the act as the final change in the electoral system, but Chartists labelled it just the beginning. Although we’ve only listed two causes in detail there were many more that led to the Chartist
The Constitution, until recently, did not apply to blacks; blacks feel they deserve payments from 310 years of slavery, destruction to their minds and culture. Dr. Martin Luther King's dilemma in the United States was of a different kind. He was torn between his identity as a Black man of African descent and his identity as an American. He urged Americans to judge based on the content of the character not by skin color and also believed in non-violent protests. Martin Luther King Jr’s main perspective during the fight on racism was equality.