History Unit 4 Part 2

By refusing to consider Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), the Supreme Court denied self-government to a Native American tribe. Prior to 1831, the federal government treated tribes as foreign entities in conducting official interactions with them. In an effort to keep their tribal lands, the Cherokee living within Georgia turned to farming and ranching. They also wrote a constitution and laws reflecting some aspects of U.S. law. The state of Georgia declared all the Cherokee laws void, prompting that nation to appeal to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion dismissing the case, saying that Indian tribes were "domestic dependent nations" and could not turn to the Supreme Court. The case's dismissal allowed Georgia to strip the tribe of its governmental forms. A year later, however, in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Marshall wrote that the "laws of Georgia can have no force" in Cherokee territory. He then established the doctrine that the national government alone could conduct Native American affairs. President Andrew Jackson and John Marshall locked horns on the issue. After Worcester, Jackson remarked, "John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." Georgia instead enforced its laws on the Cherokee tribe.

He Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.[1][2] President Andrew Jackson called for an Indian Removal Act in his 1829 speech on the issue. The Removal Act was strongly supported in the South, where states were eager to gain access to lands inhabited by the Five Civilized Tribes. In particular, Georgia, the largest state at that time, was involved in a contentious jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokee nation. President Jackson hoped removal would resolve the Georgia crisis. The Indian Removal Act was also very controversial. While Native American removal was, in theory, supposed to be voluntary, in practice great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties. Most observers, whether they were in favor of the Indian removal policy or not, realized that the passage of the act meant the inevitable removal of most Indians from the states. Some Native American leaders who had previously resisted removal now began to reconsider their positions, especially after Jackson's landslide re-election in 1832. Affected tribes include the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole.[citation needed] Most European Americans favored the passage of the Indian Removal Act, though there was significant opposition. Many Christian missionaries, most notably missionary organizer Jeremiah Evarts, protested against passage of the Act. Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln also opposed the Indian Removal Act. In Congress, New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen and Congressman Davy Crockett of Tennessee spoke out against the legislation. The Removal Act was passed after bitter debate in Congress.[3] The Removal Act paved the way for the reluctant—and often forcible—emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians to the West. The first removal treaty signed after the Removal Act was the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, in which Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West. A Choctaw chief, thought to be Thomas Harkins or Nitikechi, was quoted in the Arkansas Gazette as saying the 1831 Choctaw removal was a "trail of tears and death".[4][5] The Treaty of New Echota, signed in 1835, resulted in the removal of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. The Seminoles did not leave peacefully as did other tribes; along with fugitive slaves they resisted the removal. The Second Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842 and resulted in the forced removal of Seminoles, only a small number to remain, and around 3,000 were killed amongst American soldiers and Seminoles.[6] In the 1823 case of Johnson v. M'Intosh, the Supreme Court handed down a decision which stated that Indians could occupy lands within the United States, but could not hold title to those lands.[7]

Following the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain, American slave owners came to Florida in search of runaway African slaves and Indians. These Indians, known as the Seminole, and the runaway slaves had been trading weapons with the British throughout the early 1800s and supported Britain during the War of 1812. From 1817-1818, the United States Army invaded Spanish Florida and fought against the Seminole and their African American allies. Collectively, these battles came to be known as the First Seminole War. Florida Becomes a United States Territory Americans reacted to these confrontations by sending Andrew Jackson to Florida with an army of about 3,000 men. Jackson was successful in his attacks and left many dead and dying Seminole behind in their destroyed villages. He went on to attack Spanish settlements and captured Spanish forts at St. Marks and Pensacola. Spaniards began to realize that they could no longer keep their territory. Spain negotiated a treaty with the United States in 1819. The agreement was signed by John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State) and Luis de Onis (Spain's Minister) and was called the Adams-Onis Treaty. The Adams-Onis Treaty gave Florida to the United States and nullified the $5,000,000 debt Spain owed to the United States. Florida now belonged to the United States. The Second Seminole War Andrew Jackson had the responsibility of setting up Florida's government, and he had a government up and running within weeks. He quickly divided Florida into two parts called counties. The area that was previously called West Florida became Escambia County, and what was once East Florida, became St. Johns County. Jackson established county courts and mayors in the cities of St. Augustine (East Florida) and Pensacola (West Florida). Afterwards, Jackson left Florida, and empowered William Pope DuVal to lead Florida as governor. Florida became an official territory on March 30, 1822. Northern settlers were invading Tallahassee, a Seminole settlement. These settlers often clashed with the Seminole. In an effort to end these conflicts, the governor asked the Seminole to move. The Seminole refused. In 1823, it became necessary for the governor to offer the Seminole a treaty, which was called the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. This treaty required the Seminole to give up their land and move south. It also made them agree to discontinue hiding runaway slaves. The Seminole were given four million acres of land in the area south of present-day Ocala. This area was called a reservation. This reservation, however, did not suit the needs of the Seminole. Meanwhile, their former home in Tallahassee, became the new capital of the territory. In 1829, Andrew Jackson became President of the United States. He worked to have the Indian Removal Act passed by Congress. It became law in 1830. The purpose of this act was to move all the Indians to land west of the Mississippi River. The Seminole did not want to leave their Florida home, but agreed to send some chiefs to look at the new land where they would be relocated. While they were viewing the land, the chiefs were persuaded to sign a treaty agreeing to move. When they returned back to Florida, however, they claimed they had been tricked. They refused to leave. A warrior named Osceola led the Seminole in surprise attacks against the Americans. The first battle of the war was known as the Dade Massacre. It occurred when Major Dade was leading a combined Army from Fort Brooke (Tampa) and Fort King (Ocala). In an attack by Osceola and his men, over a hundred soldiers were killed near what is now Bushnell. The United States sent many troops into Florida to defeat the Seminole. They were successful in pushing the Seminole further and further south into the wilderness. Several agreements were made by Seminole chiefs to leave the area, but the agreements continually fell through. Finally, Osceola was captured and he died in prison in 1838. Following his death, the Seminole began to decline. Many were killed; others were captured and relocated out west. On August 14, 1842, The Second Seminole War officially ended. As a result, many Seminole were sent to reservations in the west. Florida Becomes the 27th State Floridians had continued to take steps toward statehood throughout the confrontations with the Indians. In December 1838, the year Osceola died, Florida held a convention to write a constitution. The constitution contained the laws that the citizens of Florida had agreed on to rule the territory. A council voted on and approved the constitution in 1839. At that time, the United States Congress would not approve Florida as a new state because it wanted to join as a slave state. Florida was eventually admitted to the United States as a slave state at the same time that Iowa was admitted as a free state on March 3, 1845. The Seminole Withdraw to the Everglades

In one of the saddest episodes of our brief history, men, women, and children were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and food, then forced to march a thousand miles(Some made part of the trip by boat in equally horrible conditions). Under the generally indifferent army commanders, human losses for the first groups of Cherokee removed were extremely high. John Ross made an urgent appeal to Scott, requesting that the general let his people lead the tribe west. General Scott agreed. Ross organized the Cherokee into smaller groups and let them move separately through the wilderness so they could forage for food. Although the parties under Ross left in early fall and arrived in Oklahoma during the brutal winter of 1838-39, he significantly reduced the loss of life among his people. About 4000 Cherokee died as a result of the removal. The route they traversed and the journey itself became known as "The Trail of Tears" or, as a direct translation from Cherokee, "The Trail Where They Cried" ("Nunna daul Tsuny").

The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 18321832 in the United States-Incumbents:* President: Andrew Jackson * Vice President: John C. Calhoun , vacant * Chief Justice: John Marshall...
between the United States and Native AmericansNative Americans in the United StatesNative Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, MeskwakiMeskwakiThe Meskwaki are a Native American people often known to outsiders as the Fox tribe. They have often been closely linked to the Sauk people...
s, and Kickapoos known as the "British BandBritish BandThe British Band was a group of Native Americans which fought against Illinois and Michigan Territory militia units during the 1832 Black Hawk War. The band was composed of about 1,500 men, women, and children from the Sauk, Meskwaki, Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Ottawa nations;...
" crossed the Mississippi RiverMississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. About long, the river originates at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and flows slowly southwards in sweeping meanders, terminating by river below New Orleans, where it begins to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Along with its major...
into the U.S. state of IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. It is the most populous state in the Midwest region; however with 65% of its residents concentrated in the Chicago metropolitan area, most of the state has...
in April 1832. Black Hawk's motives were ambiguous, but he was apparently hoping to avoid bloodshed while resettling on land that had been ceded to the United States in a disputed 1804 treaty.

American officials, convinced that the British Band was hostile, mobilized a frontier army. There were relatively few U.S. Army soldiers in the region, and so most American troops were part-time, poorly trained militiamen. Hostilities began on May 14, 1832, when militiamen opened fire on a delegation from the British Band. Black Hawk responded by attacking the militia force, soundly thrashing them at the Battle of Stillman's RunBattle of Stillman's RunThe Battle of Stillman's Run, also known as the Battle of Sycamore Creek or the Battle of Old Man's Creek, occurred on May 14, 1832. The battle was named for Major Isaiah Stillman and his detachment of 275 Illinois militia which fled in a panic from a large number of Sauk warriors. According to...
. He then led his band to a secure location in what is now southern WisconsinWisconsinWisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's...
. As American forces pursued Black Hawk's band, Native Americans conducted raids against American forts and settlements. Some Ho-ChunkHo-ChunkThe Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....
and PotawatomiPotawatomiThe Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family...
warriors who had grievances against Americans took part in these raids, although most members of those tribes tried to avoid the conflict. The MenomineeMenomineeSome placenames use other spellings, see also Menomonee and Menomonie.The Menominee are a nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. The Menominee, along with the Ho-Chunk, are the only tribes that are indigenous to what is now Wisconsin...
and DakotaSiouxThe Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
tribes, already at odds with the Sauks and Meskwakis, supported the Americans.

The U.S. troops were commanded by General Henry Atkinson, who spent much of his time trying to track down the British Band. Militiamen under Colonel Henry DodgeHenry DodgeHenry Dodge was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War. His son was Augustus C. Dodge with whom he served in the U.S. Senate, the first, and so far only, father-son pair to serve concurrently....
, who emerged as the most competent American commander in the war, finally caught up with the British Band on July 21 and defeated them at the Battle of Wisconsin HeightsBattle of Wisconsin HeightsThe Battle of Wisconsin Heights was the penultimate engagement of the 1832 Black Hawk War, fought between the United States state militia and allies, and the Sauk and Fox tribes, led by Black Hawk. The battle took place in what is now Dane County, near present-day Sauk City, Wisconsin...
. Black Hawk's band, greatly weakened by hunger, death, and desertion, retreated towards the Mississippi. On August 2, American soldiers attacked the remnants of the British Band at the Battle of Bad AxeBattle of Bad AxeThe Battle of Bad Axe, also known as the Bad Axe Massacre, occurred 1–2 August 1832, between Sauk and Fox Indians and United States Army regulars and militia. This final battle of the Black Hawk War took place near present-day Victory, Wisconsin in the United States...
, killing or capturing most of them. Black Hawk and other leaders escaped, but later surrendered and were imprisoned for a year.

The Black Hawk War is now often remembered as the conflict that gave young Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination. As president, he led the country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis—the American Civil War—preserving the Union while ending slavery and promoting economic...
his brief military serviceAbraham Lincoln in the Black Hawk WarAbraham Lincoln served as a volunteer in the Illinois Militia from April 21, 1832-July 10, 1832 during the Black Hawk War. Lincoln never saw combat during his tour but was elected captain of his first company. He was also present in the aftermath of two of the war's battles, where he helped to bury...
. Other notable American participants included Winfield ScottWinfield ScottWinfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
, Zachary TaylorZachary TaylorZachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
, and Jefferson DavisJefferson DavisJefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War serving as President for its entire history. After initially attending Transylvania University Davis later graduated from West Point...
. The war gave impetus to the American policy of Indian removalIndian RemovalIndian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
, in which Native American tribes were pressured to sell their lands and move west of the Mississippi River.

In 1830, President Jackson vetoed a bill providing federal aid for the construction of the Maysville Road because the route was wholly within Kentucky. Jackson generally favored internal improvements, but preferred that local projects like this be left to state funding.
The Maysville Road veto occurred on May 27, 1830, when President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill which would allow the Federal government to purchase stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, which had been organized to construct a road linking Lexington and the Ohio River, the entirety of which would be in the state of Kentucky. Its advocates regarded it as a part of the national Cumberland Road system. Congress passed a bill in 1830 providing federal funds to complete the project. Jackson vetoed the bill on the grounds that federal funding of intrastate projects of this nature was unconstitutional. He declared that such bills violated the principle that the government shouldn't be an economic affair. Jackson also pointed out that funding for these kinds of projects interfered with the paying off of the national debt.

In 1785, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had granted a charter to the Charles River Bridge Company, allowing it to construct and operate a toll bridge between Boston and Cambridge. Later, in 1828, long before the expiration of the original charter, a second bridge company received authorization for construction of a competing link across the Charles River. The new bridge was to become free to the public within six years. The initial entity sued, claiming that their charter had granted them a monopoly on such traffic. The case moved from the highest court in Massachusetts to the United States Supreme Court, where the case was first argued in 1831. Chief Justice Marshall would have held the second grant invalid, but due to absences and disagreements, it was not possible formulate a decision at that time. When the decision was finally rendered in 1837, the composition of the court had changed. The Court under Chief Justice Roger B. Taney held that the original charter had not specifically granted a monopoly and that the “general welfare” would be enhanced by opening a second bridge. This amounted to a significant modification of the Dartmouth College Case, which had found that states could not alter contracts. Taney acknowledged that only Congress had the power to regulate interstate commerce, but the states possessed a “police power,” entitling them to enact regulatory laws for the public benefit. In the decision, Taney referred not to Dartmouth but to the 1830 case of Providence Bank v. Billings, in which a bank chartered in Rhode Island without any mention of a tax. When the state imposed a tax on banks, Providence Bank objected on the basis that the power to tax at all would imply the power to tax so heavily as to wipe out the bank, which would invalidate the charter. The court ruled instead that the power to tax was of such importance that it could not be relinquished, especially as an unstated corollary. In the Charles River Bridge case, the court again concluded that the public interest, in this case to have a second bridge, could not be penalized by the assumption by the proprietors that there had been an implicit monopoly. This wsa a substantial extension, since in the Providence Bank case, the power to overtax was hypothetical. In this case, the elimination of the assumed monopoly was very real. In both cases, Taney sided with the unspoken public interest. In doing so, the court was acting fully in accord with the spirit of Jacksonian democracy, placing the public good ahead of property rights.

Established in 1834, the Whig Party was a reaction to the authoritarian policies of Andrew Jackson. “King Andrew,” as his critics labeled him, had enraged his political opponents by his actions regarding the Bank of the United States, Native Americans, the Supreme Court and his use of presidential war powers. The term Whig was taken from English politics, the name of a faction that opposed royal tyranny. Opponents who gravitated to the Whig Party included Jackson critics, states’ rights advocates, and supporters of the American System. In some respects the Whigs were the descendants of the old Federalist Party, supporting the Hamiltonian preference for strong federal action in dealing with national problems. Other components of the emerging coalition that became the Whig Party was the Anti-Masonic Party, the stated purpose of which was to combat the purported threat of Masonic power over political and judicial institutions. William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed of New York and Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania were among the Anti- Masons who migrated to the Whig Party. Another group was the Democratic Conservatives, who opposed their party's financial policies after 1836. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were the unquestioned luminaries of the Whig Party. Neither was able to overcome sectional jealousies and gain the coveted presidency. The Whigs' efforts to unify were slow and ultimately unsuccessful. Their record on the presidential level is as follows:

• The Election of 1836: The Whigs offered three regional candidates but were easily beaten by the Democratic candidate, Martin Van Buren

• The Election of 1840: The famous “log cabin and hard cider” campaign yielded a Whig victory with William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. The death of Harrison only a month after taking office was a terrible blow. Tyler was a Virginia states' rights former Democrat who proceeded to veto succession of key Whig banking and tariff bills. The frustrated Whigs disowned Tyler, but they were unable to move forward with their desired "American System."
• The Election of 1844: James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate, outdistanced Whig Henry Clay in a contest noted for its close popular vote. The Whigs did not believe that the result had been fair, and cited the practice of "naturalizing" immigrants almost as soon as they arrived. Daniel Webster denounced the practice and claimed that such fraudulent practices had led to the defeat of the Whig ticket in Pennsylvania and New York.

• The Election of 1848: The final Whig presidential victory, in which Zachary Taylor defeated Democrat Lewis Cass primarily because of votes diverted to third party candidate Martin Van Buren. With the problems of slavery threatening the country, the party's aging leaders Clay and Webster put forward a compromise plan in 1850. President Taylor blocked their moves, but following his death on July 9, the vice president, Millard Fillmore, became president and gave the necessary support.

• The Election of 1852: The Compromise of 1850 was primarily a Whig accomplishment and Daniel Webster hoped to leverage it into a presidential victory for himself. However, the Whigs decided to again nominate a general, Winfield Scott, who was soundly defeated by the Democrat.

• The Election of 1856: The two great Whig leaders Clay and Webster had both died between the nominating convention and the 1852 election. Without their dominant leadership, the Whig Party began to unravel. It was torn in two directions by the issue of slavery, with Southern Whigs trending towards what they felt were the more sympathetic Democrats. Northern Whigs had already begun to defect to the Free-Soil Party and from 1854 on to the Republicans. The Whigs made a nominal appearance with Millard Fillmore of the National American Party (garnering feeble Whig support), losing badly to Republican John C. Frémont and the victor Democrat James Buchanan.

The issue of slavery split the party. “Conscience Whigs” in the North favored the abolition of slavery and halting the institution's spread into new territories. The “Cotton Whigs” in the South took the opposite viewpoints. Following Scott’s poor showing in 1852, the southerners moved to the Democratic Party and the northerners to the newly formed Republican Party. There was never a truly consistent Whig political philosophy, except in the negative sense of opposing excessively concentrated power in the federal government. Their objectives came about largely after their disappearance. With no Southerners in Congress and Abraham Lincoln, a former Whig from Illinois, in the White House, the Republican Party finally passed much of the economic legislation regarding banking and tariffs that had long been advocated by the Whigs.

(February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States (1841), an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence, Harrison died on his 32nd day in office[1] of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment. Before election as president, Harrison served as the first territorial congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory, governor of the Indiana Territory and later as a U.S. representative and senator from Ohio. He originally gained national fame for leading U.S. forces against American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811[2], where he earned the nickname "Tippecanoe" (or "Old Tippecanoe"). As a general in the subsequent War of 1812, his most notable contribution was a victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, which brought an end to hostilities in his region. After the war, Harrison moved to Ohio, where he was elected to the United States Congress, and in 1824 he became a member of the Senate. There he served a truncated term before being appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia in May 1828. In Colombia, he spoke with Simon Bolívar about the finer points of democracy before returning to his farm in Ohio, where he lived in relative retirement until he was nominated for the presidency in 1836. Defeated, he retired again to his farm before being elected president in 1840.

John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth President of the United States (1841–1845). A native of Virginia, Tyler served as a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President (1841). He was the first to succeed to the office of President following the death of a predecessor. Tyler's opposition to nationalism and emphatic support of states' rights endeared him to his fellow Virginians but alienated him from most of the political allies that brought him to power in Washington. His presidency was crippled by opposition from both parties, and at the end of his life, he would join the South in secession from the United States. Tyler was born to an aristocratic Virginia family of English descent and he came to national prominence at a time of political upheaval. By the 1820s the nation's only political party, the Democratic-Republicans, began to split into factions, none of which shared Tyler's strict constructionist ideals. His opposition to Democratic leaders Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren led him to be elected Vice President on the Whig ticket. Upon the death of President William Henry Harrison on April 4, 1841, only a month after his inauguration, a short Constitutional crisis arose over the succession process. Tyler took the oath of office on April 6, 1841. He then moved into the White House and assumed full presidential powers, a precedent that would govern future successions and eventually be codified in the twenty-fifth amendment. Once he became president he stood against his party's platform and vetoed several of their proposals. As a result, most of his cabinet resigned, and the Whigs, dubbing him His Accidency, expelled him from the party. While he faced a stalemate on domestic policy, he still made several foreign policy achievements, signing the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with China. Tyler dedicated his last two years in office to his landmark accomplishment, the 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas. With little hope for re-election, he created a third party to move public opinion in favor of annexation, which led to the 1844 presidential election of expansionist Democrat James K. Polk over Tyler opponents Henry Clay and Van Buren. Tyler essentially retired from electoral politics until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. He sided with the Confederate government, and won election to the Confederate House of Representatives shortly before his death. As a result of his opposition to the Union, his death was the only one in presidential history not to be officially mourned in Washington. Although some have praised Tyler's political resolve, his presidency is generally held in low esteem by historians; today he is considered an obscure president, with little presence in the American cultural memory

Second Great Awakening By the beginning of the 19th century, traditional Christian beliefs were held in less favor by numerous educated Americans. A countervailing tendency was underway, however, in the form of a tremendous religious revival that spread westward during the century's first half. It coincided with the nation's population growth from five to 30 million and the boundary's westward movement. This Second Great Awakening, a reprise of the Great Awakening of the early 18th century, was marked by an emphasis on personal piety over schooling and theology. It arose in several places and in several active forms. In northern New England, social activism took precedence; in western New York, the movement encouraged the growth of new denominations. In the Appalachian region of Tennessee and Kentucky, the revival energized Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists, and gave rise to the popular camp meeting, a chance for isolated frontier folk to gather and enjoy the excitement of evangelistic fervor. The first camp meeting occurred in south-central Kentucky in June 1800. James McGready, a Presbyterian, and two colleagues preached for three solid days. The following day, two circuit-riding Methodist ministers arrived and emotionally exhorted the crowd. The revivals of the west were much more emotional than those in the east. The revival's secular effects consisted of two main strains:

• The virtues and behavior of the expanding middle class—a strong work ethic, frugality and temperance—were endorsed and legitimized.

• Its emphasis on the ability of individuals to amend their lives engendered a wide array of reform movements aimed at redressing injustice and alleviating suffering—a democratizing effect.

Evangelizing the West also took the form of interdenominational missionary groups, such as the American Home Missionary Society (1826). Their exponents were witnesses for the faith, teachers and civic pillars. Other societies published Christian literature; notable among these was the American Bible Society (1816) and the American Tract Society (1826). Social activism spawned abolition groups, temperance and suffrage societies, and others committed to prison reform, care for the handicapped and mentally ill. A noted proponent of such reforms was the evangelist Charles G. Finney. In addition to being an innovative evangelist whose techniques others would imitate, he held that the Gospel saved people, but also it was a means to reform society. True to his word, Finney was a fervent abolitionist and encouraged other Christians to get involved. The movement spread through southern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Features of the Methodist and Baptist denominations became assets on the frontier. The Methodists inspired circuit riders from among their common folk; they penetrated to remote areas and enjoyed a natural rapport with the isolated families they evangelized. Among the Baptists, ordinary farmers frequently got the God call, pored over their Bibles, then kindled congregations—which ordained them. The Bible belt of the South and border states was born on this grassroots format. The Second Great Awakening exerted a lasting impact on American society, more than any other revival. While its fervor abated, it left a legacy of many established churches, democratization and social reform.

b (1792–1875), often called "America's foremost revivalist," was a major leader of the Second Great Awakening that had a profound impact on the history of the United States. He had a paradigmatic personal conversion from rationalist skepticism to fervent Christian faith, and applied his training as a fledgling lawyer to the task of convincing his audiences of their personal guilt and need for Jesus Christ. In the process he captured a shift in American religiosity from "wait on the Lord" to "make your decision now." He pioneered revivalism as a "scientific method" he called the "new measures," a template developed by revivalists ever since. He ignited a wave of spiritual transformation among a sector of American society that emphasized the human responsibility to dramatically improve, if not perfect, the self and society. In its wake, converts generated movements for social reform in morality (temperance, anti-tobacco, anti-prostitution), honoring the Sabbath, the humane treatment of prisoners, the insane and the handicapped, women's rights and the abolition of slavery was where they had their greatest impact.

(in full, The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America), founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen. Its founders were Henry Clay, John Randolph, and Richard Bland Lee. Paul Cuffee, a wealthy mixed-race New England shipowner and activist, was an early advocate of settling freed blacks in Africa. He gained support from black leaders and members of the US Congress for an emigration plan. In 1811 and 1815-6, he financed and captained successful voyages to British-ruled Sierra Leone, where he helped African-American immigrants get established. Although Cuffee died in 1817, his efforts may have "set the tone" for the American Colonization Society (ACS) to initiate further settlements. The ACS was a coalition made up mostly of Quakers who supported abolition, and slaveholders who wanted to remove the perceived threat of free blacks to their society. They found common ground in support of so-called "repatriation". They believed blacks would face better chances for full lives in Africa than in the U.S. The slaveholders opposed abolition, but saw repatriation as a way to remove free blacks and avoid slave rebellions. From 1821, thousands of free black Americans moved to Liberia from the United States. Over 20 years, the colony continued to grow and establish economic stability. In 1847, the legislature of Liberia declared the nation an independent state. Critics have said the ACS was a racist society, while others point to its benevolent origins and later takeover by men with visions of an American empire in Africa. The Society closely controlled the development of Liberia until its declaration of independence. By 1867, the ACS had assisted in the movement of more than 13,000 Americans to Liberia. From 1825-1919, it published a journal, the African Repository and Colonial Journal. After that, the society had essentially ended, but did not formally dissolve until 1964, when it transferred its papers to the Library of Congress.

As the main activist arm of the Abolition Movement (see abolitionism)), the society was founded in 1833 under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison. By 1840 its auxiliary societies numbered 2,000, with a total membership ranging from 150,000 to 200,000. The societies sponsored meetings, adopted resolutions, signed antislavery petitions to be sent to Congress, published journals and enlisted subscriptions, printed and distributed propaganda in vast quantities, and sent out agents and lecturers (70 in 1836 alone) to carry the antislavery message to Northern audiences. Participants in the societies were drawn mainly from religious circles (e.g., Theodore Dwight Weld) and philanthropic backgrounds (e.g., businessmen Arthur and Lewis Tappan and lawyer Wendell Phillips), as well as from the free black community, with six blacks serving on the first Board of Managers. The society’s public meetings were most effective when featuring the eloquent testimony of former slaves like Frederick Douglass or William Wells Brown. The society’s antislavery activities frequently met with violent public opposition, with mobs invading meetings, attacking speakers, and burning presses. In 1839 the national organization split over basic differences of approach: Garrison and his followers were more radical than other members; they denounced the U.S. Constitution as supportive of slavery and insisted on sharing organizational responsibility with women. The less radical wing, led by the Tappan brothers, formed the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which advocated moral suasion and political action and led directly to the birth of the Liberty Party in 1840. Because of this cleavage in national leadership, the bulk of the activity in the 1840s and ’50s was carried on by state and local societies. The antislavery issue entered the mainstream of American politics through the Free-Soil Party (1848–54) and subsequently the Republican Party (founded in 1854). The American Anti-Slavery Society was formally dissolved in 1870, after the Civil War and Emancipation.

U.S. political party (1840–48) created by abolitionists who believed in political action to further antislavery goals. In opposition to William Lloyd Garrison and his followers (who scorned political activity as both futile and sinful in the battle to end slavery), a group of abolitionists met in Warsaw, New York, to organize the Liberty Party. They nominated James G. Birney, a Kentuckian and former slaveholder, for president. The party’s first national convention took place at Albany, New York, on April 1, 1840, when Birney’s nomination was confirmed. Liberty Party supporters realized that the abolition of slavery in the South would not occur through political action. But they hoped to dramatize the antislavery issue, pressure legislators into taking firmer antislavery positions, prevent slavery from extending beyond the states where it existed into the federal territories, and eradicate both the interstate slave trade and the institution itself within the boundaries of the nation’s capital. Although the Liberty Party collected only 7,000 votes in 1840, it raised that total to 62,000 in 1844 (when Birney was again its candidate), probably denying the state of New York—and with it the presidency—to Henry Clay. In January 1848 the party nominated John P. Hale at its convention in New York City. Hale withdrew from the race, and the Liberty Party dissolved when many of its members joined “Barnburner” Democrats and “Conscience” Whigs in forming the Free-Soil Party (August 9, 1848).