Lesson 78: Nineteenth Century Banking

     In the 1800's America didn't print money, they made coins out of gold and silver.
When you stored money in banks for safe keeping, they would give you a banknote which you would bring when you wanted to extract your money.

Lesson 77: The Tariff of 1832 and Clay's Compromise

     The Tariff of 1832 was supposed to reduce the rate of the Tariff of 1828, but that didn't satisfy the people.

When South Carolina spoke of seceding from the Union if the tariff was not nullified, president Jackson raised an army to go there.
 He also passed the "Force Bill" which allowed him to use the army to enforce the tariff.

 Former vice president Calhoun went to his friend Henry Clay to help him find a solution to the mess.
Clay came up with the Compromise Tariff of 1833 which would reduce the tariff by ten percent over eight years.

Lesson 76: South Carolina

     Out of all the states, South Carolina was the most angry about the Tariff of 1828 and the most opposing.

Vice president John C. Calhoun, who was from South Carolina, created a document called "The South Carolina Exposition" which argued that the Tariff was unconstitutional.
 But the Tariff of 1828 would not nullified because one state heavily opposed it.

Lesson 75: Tariff of 1828

     After John Quincy Adams was elected in 1824,  supporters of Andrew Jackson planned to sabotage the new president by making him pass a proposal through Congress that would raise high tariffs on manufactured goods.
This would be good for the New England area, but not for the rest of the country. Adams was from New England and it would seem that he would be favoring his home over the rest of America, he would lose favor with the people.

 This idea would have worked had the proposal not been delayed until after the election of 1828, Jackson did not need sabotage to be elected.
 Unfortunately, the proposal was finally passed by congress after Jackson was elected president and wrecked his favor with the people.

Lesson 74: New Political Parties

     During the election of 1828, two political parties were formed.  The Democrats, who believed in weak central government and strict interpretation of the Constitution, descended from the Democratic Republicans.

The common people were drawn to support this party, because the power was to be put into the peoples hands.

 The Whigs, who came from the Federalist Party, believed in a strong central government, and loose interpretation of the Constitution.

Businessmen supported the Whigs because they believed in strong industry and the government holding the power.

Lesson 73: Election of 1828

     In 1828 when elections were held, Andrew Jackson ran again.
He gained many supporters just as before by supporting the people, saying that they should be the ones to rule the country, not the central government.  He also believed careers in politics should be limited to a few years to keep corruption form seeping in.

 During this time, white men all over America were gaining more voting rights so that not only privileged people could vote, but the poor could as well.
 Men running for president had to think of ways to gain support from these people by being more like the common men they represented, allowing greater freedoms.

Jackson won the election of 1828 by gaining the popular vote among the people again and also more electoral votes than anyone else.

Lesson 72: Election of 1824

     When the time for election of a new president came, four candidates showed up.
These were William Crawford,  John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and General Andrew Jackson.
 Jackson and Adams soon became the most popular with the most votes.  Jackson gained more votes of the people, but not enough electoral votes.

 Henry Clay quit his run for presidency and began to support John Quincy Adams. When Adams was selected as president, he made Clay his Secretary of State.
This would come to be known as the  "Corrupt Bargain" of 1824, since Clay gave Adams his approval and Adams promoted him to his cabinet when he became president.

Lesson 71: Condition of Slaves

     Slaves were primarily found in the southern states and were very valuable, money wise.  They were mostly considered property rather than people.

 When a slave owner died or ran into financial problems, slaves would sometimes be sold at auctions right alongside cattle.  

These auctions furthered the abolitionist movement to resolve the issue of  slavery.

Lesson 70: Southern Culture

     In 1850, the south had formed its own culture and became an aristocracy where white men with the biggest plantations were the highest ranking people with the most power.
 The wealthy gained their money (and social status) through the black slaves which ran their plantations.  The more slaves you had, the more money you made, the higher your rank was.

 Black slaves could be treated very badly in the south, but when certain abolitionists tried to argue against slavery, others in favor of it would come back with their own arguments for it.
 Some of the arguments they made were that slaves were better off in America than other countries. In America they would be "civilized and could learn about Christianity."

But the people in favor of slavery never argued for their true motives for keeping slaves, making  money.

Lesson 69: Cotton is King

     Since the southern soil was good for planting and cotton was one of the most valuable crops grown, it became the main source of income for the plantations. 

 Since cotton took a long time to harvest and separate from it's seeds, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin ("gin" was short for engine)  it could separate cotton much fast than one man at a time.

 Cotton became harvested, processed, and sold very much over the next ten years.

Lesson 68: Innovative Transportation

     Transportation was slow in the 18th century, so people began to come up with many plans to speed things up.
 The Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike was created to connect eastern cities.
 Construction of the Cumberland Road was started in 1811.  It was 591 miles long stretching from Maryland to Illinois it was completed in 1852.

 Because the shipment of goods over land by roads were not considered economical at the time, Robert Fulton created the first successful steamboat and traveled from New York to the Hudson Bay.
Steamboat travel became very popular aft that.
 The invention of steamboat transport made way for canals to be built.
The Erie Canal stretched 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo.

 Still, transportation needed speeding up over land. This led to the greatest invention of the time, the railroad.
In 1860 nearly 30,000 railroad tracks were laid.