Whigs and

men who belonged to the educated and well-to-do classes. Their Democrats party resembled the earlier Federalists, being composed largely of scholars, professional men, prosperous tradesmen, bankers, manufacturers, and merchants. But the Whig party was not an organization with fixed political principles; it was composed of a number of diverse and conflicting elements, whose only bond of union was a common desire to wrest political power from the Democrats. On the other hand, the Democratic party in 1840 was still true to Jeffersonian doctrines (p. 214); it still professed to stand up for the rights of the States, to construe the Constitution strictly, and to practice economy in public affairs. But the Whig party professed nothing and raised no questions; "it ventured but twice in its history (1848 and 1852) to adopt a platform of principles, and it ventured but once (1844) to nominate a candidate for the Presidency with any avowed political principles."

EXERCISES AND REFERENCES

I. Jackson's triumph: Stanwood, I, 140-150.

2. President Adams and the opposition: Turner, 265-284.

3. Internal improvements: McDonald, 137-141.

4. The Tariff of Abominations: Wilson, 25-50.

5. Nullification: McDonald, 154-167: Wilson, 59-62.

6. The spoils system: Hart, III, 531-535; Wilson, 30-34.

7. Indian affairs (1825-1837); McDonald, 169-181; McMaster, V, 175-183, 537-540.

8. The bank question: Wilson, 68-84; Dewey, 198-216.

9. The panic of 1837: McMaster, VI, 389-415; Dewey, 224-247.
10. The election of 1840: Garrison, 123-140; McMaster, VI, 550-592.
II. Dates for the chronological table: 1832, 1837, 1840.

12. Summarize the political events of the Jacksonian Era.
13. What was the Kitchen Cabinet? What was the origin of the
word "stump-speaker"? Who were the Barnburners? Who were the
Hunkers? Who were the Locofocos? Sketch the life of Thomas Hart
Benton; of Martin Van Buren. Name in the order of their greatness
six of the most prominent politicians of the Jacksonian Era (1825-41).
Give reasons for the assignment of rank. Give a graphic account of
the "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" campaign.

14. Hints for special reading: J. S. Bassett, The Life of Andrew Jackson; John T. Morse, Jr., John Quincy Adams; Carl Schurz, Henry Clay, James Schouler, History of the United States, Vol. III, IV; Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas H. Benton; Edward M. Shepard, Martin Van Buren.

XXVI

INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS (1820-40)

While statesmen during the Era of Good Feeling and during the Jacksonian Era were struggling with great political problems, business men and toilers far removed from the scene of political struggles were working with all their might to develop the nation's marvelous resources. What was the story of our development between 1820 and 1840? What new territory was opened up to settlement? What industrial and social progress was made?

HIGHWAYS, CANALS, AND RAILROADS

A striking feature of our material progress between 1820 and 1840 was development in transportation. We saw that by the aid of Congress a great national turnpike was constructed between Cumberland and Wheeling (p. 240). In 1824 plans for Extension extending this road were laid, and by 1840 it had passed through National

of the

Road

Zanesville and Columbus, in Ohio; through Richmond, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute, in Indiana, and had reached its western terminus at Vandalia in Illinois. The great National Road thus traversed the central portion of three large States, forming for many years the principal tie between the East and the West. Traffic on this highway was always heavy; at times the road was so crowded that it resembled a street in a city. The construction of the National Road was brought about largely by the influence of Baltimore merchants who wished

The

Erie

Canal

Clinton's
Prophecy

The
Pennsyl-
vania
Canals

to secure for their city an easy route to the West. But the
merchants from the city of New York also wished an easy
route to the West. They especially desired better communi-
cation with the western part of their own State, for in the
early years of the nineteenth century much of the wheat and
flour of Western New York went down the Susquehanna to
Baltimore. Indeed it was the Susquehanna trade that gave
Baltimore its start as a commercial city. To reach the west-
ern country the people of New York constructed the Erie
Canal, which extended from Albany to Buffalo, connecting
the Hudson River with Lake Erie. The digging of this "great
ditch" was begun in 1817 when De Witt Clinton, the governor
of New York, turned the first spade ful of earth.
In 1825
the canal was completed and thrown open to the public. In
the mind of Clinton the canal was to be a political as well as
a commercial tie between the East and the West. As a bond
of union between the Atlantic and the Western States, he said,
"it may prevent the dismemberment of the American empire.
As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mis-
sissippi, the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes of the North and
West and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest in-
land trade ever witnessed. The most fertile and extensive
regions of America will avail themselves of its facilities for a
market. All their surplus productions, whether of the soil,
the forest, the mines, or the water, their fabrics of art, and
their supplies of foreign commodities, will concentrate in the
city of New York. That city will in the course of time become
the granary of the world, the emporium of commerce, the
seat of manufacturing, the focus of great moneyed operations
. . . and before the revolution of a century the whole island of
Manhattan, covered with habitations and replenished with a
dense population, will constitute one vast city."

The opening of the Erie Canal was a signal for canal construction in other States. Pennsylvania promptly began to plan for a system of canals leading from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. In 1826 work on such a system was begun, and nine years later one could travel by a horse-railway from Philadel