Representative Viewpoints in U.S. Political History from 1790 to 1898 - SAT Subject Test in United States History

The belief that states have a right to ignore federal law if they deem it a violation of their own sovereignty is known by the name of nullification. The author of this quote, John C. Calhoun, was the most prominent advocate of states’ rights and nullification. Calhoun resigned as Vice President to Andrew Jackson in 1832 due to their disagreement on South Carolina’s attempted nullification of the Tariff of 1832.

The above quote is taken from a speech given by John C. Calhoun defending the doctrine of nullification, the theory that states could invalidate Federal laws they believed were unconstitutional. Calhoun is often seen as the paragon of a states’ rights Southern politician thanks to his role in the Nullification Crisis of 1831-32, where he resigned his position as Vice President to Andrew Jackson due to their disagreement on South Carolina’s attempted Nullification of the Tariff of 1832.

The bulk of popular support for the War of 1812 came from the southern and western states of America. Henry Clay, as the most prominent representative of the Western states and John Calhoun, as the most prominent of the Southern States, both heavily supported war with Britain and were the two primary forces behind the passage of war through Congress. Andrew Jackson was an exceedingly prominent “war-hawk” and clamored for war, which he claimed was necessary to complete the break from Britain. Likewise, President James Madison was a supporter of a war which he believed was necessary to maintain American pride and neutrality. The only area of the country to generally oppose war was New England. Daniel Webster, as a prominent New England lawyer and politician, is by far the most likely of these five to have both publically and privately opposed a declaration of war.

Following the end of the Civil War, Lincoln favored a quick and easy process of reconciliation with the South. He contended that once 10% of a Southern state's electorate took oaths to establish an abolitionist government, that state could gain re-entry. The Wade-Davis bill argued that Lincoln was too lenient and proposed a much higher percentage of the electorate to take oaths. Lincoln, believing the Wade-Davis bill would only cause greater disharmony, used his pocket veto to block its passage.

The Missouri compromise addressed the issue of free versus slave states in congress, in order to hold a balance between the north and south. Northerners believed that the Southern whites were overrepresented in Congress, and wished to contain this issue. Henry Clay thus worked out a compromise, without addressing the moral issue of slavery at all.

The debates of the Convention were held in secret, but are considered to be an equal representation of many different voices of the different writers and participants. The newspapers and the Federalist papers were thus unable to publish anything about the Constitution until its completion.

The creation of the national bank was the brainchild of Federalist Party member Alexander Hamilton and was supported by the President at the time, George Washington. It also had the support of John Adams. The only one of the four to oppose the creation of the national bank was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson and Madison both believed that the creation of a national bank would be to the detriment of a sound money supply. They also believed that it would serve the interests of foreign investors and Northern commercial speculators better than it would serve the interests of the American people. The arguments of Hamilton won the day, however, and the bank was incepted by George Washington in 1791.

Although the proceeds of the Louisiana Purchase were put toward funding Napoleon's planned invasion of the UK, this was not the intention of President Thomas Jefferson.

The Virginia Resolution was written by James Madison. The Kentucky Resolutions (note the plural) were written by Thomas Jefferson.

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were written with the objective of garnering support for opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts. The primary argument of the documents was that the Alien and Sedition Acts violated protected First Amendment rights and that the Adams’ Presidency was acting unconstitutionally. In the second of his Kentucky Resolutions, Jefferson famously argues that the States have the right to nullify any Federal law which goes above and beyond the proscribed powers of the Federal government. Jefferson and Madison urge those who are wavering to demand the repeal of the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions became important documents in shaping the early ideology of Jefferson’s political party and campaigns. The public outrage at the Alien and Sedition Acts culminated in the defeat of the Federalist Party in the election of 1800 (the so-called Revolution of 1800) and the ascension of Jefferson and the Republican Party.

The Free-Soil Party was a short lived political party that contested elections in 1848 and 1852. Its membership was mainly composed of anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats from the North-East of the country. The Free-Soil Party ran a campaign that slavery should not be allowed to expand into any of the Western territories. They very rarely went so far as to call for the immediate abolition of slavery, as even most abolitionists realized this would likely lead to civil war. The Party was accommodated into the Republican Party by the election of 1856. Another short-lived political party that argued for anti-immigration and anti-Catholic policies was the American Party (also called the “Know-Nothing Party”)

The Federalists and Republicans both developed around the election of 1796, when Adams and Jefferson faced off in the Presidential contest. The Federalists favored th Executive, the Federal government, and business interests, while the Republicans favored the Legislature, the State governments, and agricultural interests. In foreign policy, most decisions focused on Britain and France, while Spain and Austria were hardly considered by the new government,

William McKinley contested the elections of 1896 and 1900 for the Republican Party and won both elections. He ran against William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic and Populist candidate, on each occasion. McKinley represented the interests of big business and Imperialism whereas Bryan represented the views of Populism. McKinley’s support of high protective tariffs and the expansion of United States’ influence abroad assured him the support of the wealthy and middle classes.

The Ocala Demands were a set of demands issued in 1890 by a group of agricultural institutions. It demanded, among other issues, that there be an amendment to the Constitution providing for the direction election of Senators, a reduction of tariff rates, the establishment of a graduated income tax, that the banking system be reformed and placed directly in the hands of the Federal government, and that “free silver” be used to support inflation in United States currency. In 1892 the Farmer’s Association formed into the Populist Party and the Ocala Demands were accommodated into the Party’s Omaha Platform.

The Compromise of 1850 was designed to prevent the threat of Southern secession and outbreak of Civil War. The Compromise included the admittance of California as a free state, and the admittance of New Mexico and Utah (with the caveat that they be able to determine the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty); it also included that the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Colombia, and that Congress would pass a new Fugitive Slave Act. The Compromise was proposed by Henry Clay, so we can assume he would have been in favor of it. Likewise, Daniel Webster and Stephen A. Douglas were ardent supporters of the Compromise, arguing convincingly to President Millard Fillmore about its necessity. Fillmore was initially reluctant, but was eventually swayed by their convictions. Of these five, only John C. Calhoun opposed the Compromise, which he feared would take away a great deal of power and control from the South. For Calhoun it was far from a compromise, and rather more an imposition of Northern will.

The Populist movement of the 1890s grew out of the Grange movement, a coalition of farmers and labor activists in the Great Plains. The unifying feature of the Grange movement was the advocation of farmers' interests, most notably a change from the gold standard to bimetalism in currency, enforcement of new standards in banking and loans, and a focus on elections at all levels. These issues found sympathetic votes throughout the South and West, and in 1896 the Democratic Party nominated the Populist hero William Jennings Bryan, who garnered the nomination with his famous "Cross of Gold Speech." Populist measures such as the direct election of Senators, banking restrictions, and agricultural reform eventually became law, but the Populist Party itself lost momentum by the end of the nineteenth century.

The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was seen at the time as the best possible way to deal with the “Indian Problem.” United States lawmakers perceived that white settlers and Native people could not peacefully coexist under the current situation where racial, cultural, and political differences were so great. The Dawes Severalty Act, named for its sponsor, Senator Henry Dawes, proposed to “Americanize” the native population. The first step was to discourage the Native population from collective ownership—individual property rights would naturally cause them to experience life much like an American citizen. To this end the American government began to divide Native land among individuals and force Native people to abandon their conventional economic practices, embracing widespread agriculture. Finally, the government envisioned that it could sell what land was not required by Native individuals to white settlers and thereby open up new sections of the continent to American expansion.

The Compact Theory maintains that the United States Constitution was created by the agreement of the States; therefore, if the states disagree with the direction or interpretation of the Constitution, then they have the right to dissolve it. Thomas Jefferson was a notable proponent of this opinion, arguing passionately for it in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.

In the case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Roger Taney, ruled that African Americans were not United States citizens and therefore had no right to bring a case before the Supreme Court, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it threatened the protected right to own property; furthermore, it stated that the Federal government had no right to regulate slavery in the territories. Taney and the other Justices had intended this ruling to be the end of the slavery expansion issue; however, it was not universally accepted: the Republican Party in particular treated it as an immoral legal precedent.