1. Bell Work
How successful was Jackson at balancing sectional and national interests?
*Answer in notes!

2. Economic Panic & the Rise of the Whigs
Unit 4
The Ante Bellum Period
Part 10
Economic Panic & the Rise of the Whigs

3. 1836 – The Whigs couldn’t settle on a single candidate for president so they ran 4, hoping to prevent an electoral college majority & throw the election to the House.
Martin Van Buren, the Democratic candidate & Jackson’s handpicked successor, won a majority in the electoral college to become president. Unlike Jackson, Van Buren was a professional politician & the chief organizer of the Democratic Party.

5. Throughout the 1830’s, American industry continued to grow in the North while commercial farming grew in the South & West.
Economic growth, coupled w/ the transportation revolution, created a national economy known as the Market Revolution. However, with no National Bank to steady the economy, inflation quickly rose. High prices & overproduction led to & an economic recession known as the Panic of Farms & businesses failed, leading to high unemployment & widespread poverty.

6. Timed Pair Share Face partners. Person A:
Jackson refused to sign the National Bank charter to spite Henry Clay, what did he choose to do with the money from the old national bank that helped cause the Panic of 1837? Explain.

7. Person B Respond to their ideas in the following format:
“I agree with your point when you said ___________, but I would also like to add _______________.”

8. Why would this always be a problem?
The economic hardship created by the Panic led many poor & unemployed workers to embrace the idea of communal living.
Arthur Brisbane established many socialist communes in the Northeast which attracted workers w/ the ideal of total economic equality.
The communes ultimately failed due to disputes over work responsibilities, but the political & economic model of socialism remained popular w/ intellectuals & a small minority of trade & labor unionists.
Why would this always be a problem?

9. The Panic of 1837 became the defining issue of Van Buren’s administration. He & the Democratic Party were blamed for the poor economy. Despite his low popularity, the Democrats nominated Van Buren for a 2nd term.
The Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison for president & John Tyler for Vice-president.

10. Harrison was chosen based on his appeal to the common man as a war hero, but the Great Triumvirate of the Whig Party (Henry Clay, John Calhoun, & Daniel Webster) also believed Harrison would be easily controlled & act as a figurehead while they actually ran the government.

11. The Election of 1840 was the 1st in which modern campaign methods were used to sway the common voter. The Whig Party used a slogan, “Tippecanoe & Tyler, too”, to capitalize on Harrison’s reputation as a hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. He was portrayed as a common man who was born in a log cabin & fond of hard cider. Songs, pamphlets, posters, etc. were produced for the campaign.

12. Harrison won the election easily but died of pneumonia 32 days after his inauguration, making John Tyler, a former Democrat, the president.

13. The Whigs distrusted & hated Tyler, referring to him as “His Accidency”. He often sided against the Whigs in Congress & soon left the party, making him an independent president.
With no party support, Tyler managed only 2 meaningful actions as president. In 1842, he signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which resolved a boundary dispute between the U.S. & Canada, & in 1845 he annexed Texas into the U.S.

14. Answer this: How successful was the Whig party?
What was their downfall (if any)?

15. Jimmy Fallon clip