#1: What events led to the emergence of Andrew Jackson as President in 1828? To what extent were these an affirmation of him or a reaction to the political environment?

• Two Party System – Democrats & Whigs

• The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824

• JQA – Minority President

• Going “Whole Hog” for Jackson in 1828

• Old Hickory as President *

#2: What were the major issues during Jackson’s presidency? How would you rate the effectiveness of his handling of each of those issues?

• The Spoils System

• The “Tariff of Abominations” | Nullification

• The Trail of Tears

• The Bank War

• Internal Improvements – Maysville Road Veto *

#3: Does Andrew Jackson belong in the pantheon of great American presidents? Why or why not? *

#4: What were the major problems faced by the Van Buren administration? Did these demonstrate a weakness of Jackson’s economic and financial policies? Why was he unable to outmaneuver the Whig opposition?

• The Birth of the Whigs

• The Election of 1836

• Big Woes for the “Little Magician”

• Depression Doldrums | Independent Treasury *

#5: Argue for or Against: the Texas Revolution against Mexico was more about the expansion of slavery into the West than about the rights of Anglo-American settlers in Texas. *

#6: What did the two new democratic parties, the Democrats and Whigs, really stand for? Were they actual ideological opponents or were their disagreements less important than their shared roots and commitment to mass democracy?

• The Election of 1840

• Politics of the People – Populism

• Two-Party System

• What was Jacksonian Democracy? *

#7: Compare and contrast the two-party political system of the 1830’s New Democracy with the first two-party system of the early Republic. In what ways were the two systems similar, and in what ways were they different? Were both parties of the 1830’s correct in seeing themselves as heirs of the Jeffersonian Republican tradition rather than the Hamiltonian Federalist tradition? *