America Past and Present (6th ed.)
Irish/BHS
*If you are absent on the day of a class discussion, you may still earn participation points by answering the discussion questions
in written form. All questions must be answered completely. They are due the day you return to class.
Chapter 10: Questions____________________________
1. In what ways did American cultural developments in the 1820s and 1830s reflect the
democratic impulse of the period?
2. How did John Quincy Adams’ victory through and alleged “corrupt bargain” in the election
of 1824 set the stage for Andrew Jackson’s election as the popular hero of the Democratic
Party in 1828 and the emergence of a new mass democracy?
3. Describe the temperament and political philosophy of Andrew Jackson. Why was Jackson
such a personally powerful embodiment of the new mass democracy in the 1820s and
1830s? Would mass democracy have developed without a popular hero like Jackson?
4. Discuss the attitudes, policies, and events that led to the “Trail of Tears” Indian removal in
1837.
5. Why did John C. Calhoun and the South see the Tariff of 1828 as such an “abomination” and
raise threats over it? What events transpired and how was the Nullification Crisis resolved?
6. How did political, economic, and constitutional issues combine to lead to the death of the
national bank? How did Andrew Jackson’s “war” against the Second Bank of the United
States fuel popular democracy as well as lead to the formation of the anti-Jackson Whig
party?
7. In what ways did the elections of 1828 and 1840 firmly establish the two-party system in
American politics? What did the two new democratic parties, the Democrats and the Whigs,
really stand for? Were they actual ideological opponents, or were their disagreements less
important than their shared roots in the new mass democracy?
8. Is it correct to describe the 1830s as the Age of Democracy? Explain. What were the
democratic limitations during this period?