| During the late 1700’s, the Federalist
party led the country’s government, but by 1769, a new political party
led by Thomas
Jefferson began.
The new party was called the Democratic-Republican party.
During the election in 1800, Jefferson and Aaron Burr received
the same number of electoral votes.
Because of this the Twelfth Amendment was passed, so that a tie
would not happen again.
Jefferson
believed that the government was far stronger than the Constitution
allowed. He favored the idea
of states’ rights. He felt
that state govt. was closer to the people than the national govt.
Jefferson
didn’t agree with many
federalist ideas, but he did believe in some of their policies for the
country.
The president’s (
Jefferson
) aim was to lessen federal power. To
do this he cut back the size of the federal govt.
Unfortunately, this did not always work.
The reason that it didn’t always work was because of Chief
Justice John Marshall of the Supreme Court.
Marshall
wanted to prove that the Supreme Court had broad Constitutional powers.
It showed its strength and became known as the
Marshall Court
.
The
Supreme Court had the power to overturn any law that it felt was
unconstitutional. In the case of Fletcher V. Peck the Supreme Court
proved that it had the power to overturn state and federal laws.
In effect, it said that the federal
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govt. was constitutionally stronger than
state govts.
Many changes took place in the way Americans lived and worked.
These new and different life-styles helped
America
grow.
Many northern people began to live in cities.
The large cities of the Northeast influenced northern life.
It drew people from different backrounds and interests.
Soon theaters, schools, and libraries were built, and within a
short time it became a commercial center.
This was where manufactured and farm products were bought or
sold.
Thomas Jefferson
The North began to industrialize in the early 1800s.
Some of the
New England
states were not well suited for farming. Because
of this they had to find other ways to make a living.
The states in the North had the resources needed for industry.
Finally the North had a labor force for
America
’s growing industry. It
was made up of skilled workers and Americans searching for jobs.
As a result many small industries, such as ironworks and textile
mills, began to appear in the North.
In
contrast, life in the North was different from life in the South.
This was because Southern life
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styles were generally rural.
Farming was a traditional way of life, and their economy was
based upon trade in cash crops.
Most of the south was broken into small
family farms. Each farm
was self-sufficient and surplus was often sold or traded at the nearest
village market.
The local villages of the South were usually much smaller than the
cities of the North, but they often served many of the same needs.
During the Age of Jefferson, cotton became the major product of the
South, but cotton farming had not always been so popular.
In 1792, 1,500 tons of cotton was raised.
This was because Southern farmers didn’t feel this was a
worth-while crop. Cotton
also needed large areas of fertile land to grow.
It had to be harvested, cleaned, and readied for market by hand.
Therefore, little income could be gained from cotton sales.
In 1793, Eli Whitney
invented the cotton gin. It
was a machine that cut the time and the work needed to prepare cotton
for market. As a result, it
became profitable to raise cotton. With
this invention cotton production quickly increased.
For example in 1800 over 18,000 tons were raised.
During the same time, the demand for cotton cloth grew rapidly.
By the early 1800s, cotton became the “king” of the South.
The Age of Jefferson was a time of change in
America
. The society, economy, and
government grew rapidly. Americans
moved westward and the
U.S.
gained new lands. The
country faced many new challenges.
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