Cammi Smith Period 5 November 5, 2010 Identifications #1

Clay, Henry Henry Clay was a major leader in the House of Representatives in the early 19th century who is now known most prominently for the American System, which was composed to aide to the advancing of the economic growth of the United States. The plan consisted of three parts: protective tariffs, which were already being endorsed by Congress around the time of the plans creation (1816), a national bank, also chartered in 1816 as the 2nd Bank of the United States because the first was allowed to expire in 1811, and internal improvements, which were halted at the time because James Monroe continually questioned the constitutionality of the giving of federal money to construct roads and canals within individual states leaving those states to establish internal improvements on their own. Although within individual states, the building of roads within individual states using federal money was discouraged, the building of national transportation systems were greatly encouraged and the national bank would also help maintain a smooth system by providing a national coinage. These alterations would greatly ease travel between the sections as manufacturing began to prosper. Jacksonian Democracy Coined by the name of Andrew Jackson, Jacksonian Democracy embodied equality in that all classes of white American males were to be mixed given that there were no separate classes in steamboats, hotels, and, later, railroad cars. Its philosophy was strongly, if not solely, based upon the principles and prosperity of the Common Man, hence the given name of the decades between the years of 1924-1940, the Age of the Common Man. With this new attitude equality of all white males, politics began to spread from solely the wealthy to the masses as certain laws of religious or proprietary qualifications were lifted and universal male suffrage was adopted. Before the commencement of the Age of the Common Man, common people had no say in who were to be nominated as candidates for office but as the 1830s approached, popular election began to take hold in the form of nomination conventions, the first one held by the AntiMasons, making the voting process more democratic. As a whole, the transition to a democratic nation was mainly focused on making politics fair to the common people by controlling office terms and maintaining a two-party system. Nullification Crisis In response to the Tariff of 1828, also known as the Tariff of Abominations, which was passed by Congress to aide northern manufactures but in turn alienated the southern planters, the state of South Carolina deemed it unconstitutional and had decided to exercise its right nullification, the right to decide whether to obey a federal law or to declare it null and void,

Cammi Smith Period 5 November 5, 2010 Identifications #1

and in 1832, it held a convention set to not only annul the despised tariff, but to also enact a new resolution which forbade the collection of tariffs within the state of South Carolina. Andrew Jackson was an advocate for states rights conditionally in that if it led to disunion, he would take action against it because secession was unconstitutional. In response to the resolution, not only had he gotten Congress to pass a Force bill giving him the authority to take military action against South Carolina, but hed also signed a proclamation stating that nullification and disunion counted as treason. Though no military action actually took place, South Carolina took the threat and withdrew the nullification after Jackson persuaded Congress to lower the tariff to everyones liking. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions After being vastly affected by the Naturalization Act, which increased the number of years needed for immigrants to qualify for United States citizenship (most immigrants voted for Democrat-Republicans), and the Sedition Act, which forbade newspaper editors to criticize any aspect of the federal government, be it the president or Congress, Democrat-Republicans began to determine them unconstitutional by the First Amendment. Unfortunately, in 1799, the practice of judicial review by Congress had not been established yet so they took matters into their own hands by endorsing nullification laws in their state legislatures. Before the conflict could become too troublesome, the crisis weakened due to the fact that the Federalist Party was no longer the majority in Congress after the election of 1800 and the new majority of Democrat-Republicans allowed the laws to expire. Also aiding to the conflicts demise was the establishment of judicial review within the Supreme Court under the leadership of John Marshall.